Man Entwined by Two Snakes (c. 1527): Art, History and Details

Man Entwined by Two Snakes (c. 1527) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Giovanni Antonio da Pordenone (Italian, 1483/84–1539).

The work and its context

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

According to contemporary accounts, Michelangelo attended the excavation of the Greek sculpture Laocoön and His Sons when it was unearthed near Rome in 1506. Laocoön was a Trojan priest who, along with his two sons, was attacked by sea serpents sent by the goddess Athena. The emotional agony of the sculpture fascinated Michelangelo and artists throughout Italy, inspiring copies and variations. In this drawing, a northern Italian artist referenced just one figure from the story using the chiaroscuro technique—achieved here with dark and light inks on blue toned paper—to emphasize the sculptural quality of the body.

Object facts

• Title: Man Entwined by Two Snakes
• Date: c. 1527
• Creator attribution: Giovanni Antonio da Pordenone (Italian, 1483/84–1539)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: pen and brown ink and brown and blue wash, heightened with white gouache
• Dimensions: Sheet: 19.2 x 11.7 cm (7 9/16 x 4 5/8 in.)
• Collection: DR - Italian
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1944.475

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

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.