Apollo Flaying Marsyas (c. 1691–1700): Art, History and Details

Apollo Flaying Marsyas (c. 1691–1700) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Giovanni Battista Foggini (Italian, 1652–1725).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

According to myth, the overconfident satyr (half-goat, half-man) Marsyas challenged Apollo, god of the arts, to a musical duel. The defeated Marsyas was tied to a tree and skinned alive in punishment for his pride. Foggini’s bronze captures the moment after Apollo’s victory as the bound Marsyas cries out in agony while the god makes the first incision. The satyr’s anguish is echoed by the gnarled branches; Apollo’s wrath is manifested in his billowing drapery.

Object facts

• Title: Apollo Flaying Marsyas
• Date: c. 1691–1700
• Creator attribution: Giovanni Battista Foggini (Italian, 1652–1725)
• Culture: Italy, Florence
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: Bronze
• Dimensions: height: 59.8 cm (23 9/16 in.)
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 2023.2

A detail from the museum

The lyre with which Apollo outperformed Marsyas can be seen between his feet, cast down upon his victory.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Balleri, Rita, and Università degli Studi di Firenze. La Manifattura Ginori e la circolazione dei modelli scultorei in Europa atti del convegno e mostra Arti in dialogo. Livorno: sillabe, 2024.
• Christie, Manson & Woods International Inc. Modern Medici: Masterpieces from a New York Collection, Old Master Paintings, Sculpture and Works of Art. 2023.
• "Staff. Welcome, Alexander J. Noelle: Assistant curator of European paintings and sculpture, 1500–1800.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 63, no. 2 (2023): 30–31.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.