Mars (c. 1584–87): Art, History and Details

Mars (c. 1584–87) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Giambologna (Flemish, active Italy, 1529–1608).

The work and its context

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

Although he is lacking the helmet and armor common to Mars in Roman iconography, this figure is identified as the ancient god of war. Mars pauses mid-stride, swinging his sword arm back to strike an enemy in his gaze; this dynamic composition is typical of Giambologna’s models. Collectors prized small bronzes such as this and often kept them in special rooms along with antiquities, coins, shells, and other curiosities. Easy to hold and arrange due to their small size, they were appreciated through touch as well as sight.

Object facts

• Title: Mars
• Date: c. 1584–87
• Creator attribution: Giambologna (Flemish, active Italy, 1529–1608)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 39 x 18.4 cm (15 3/8 x 7 1/4 in.); with base: 41.6 x 18.5 x 21.4 cm (16 3/8 x 7 5/16 x 8 7/16 in.)
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1964.421

A detail from the museum

The active, twisting pose indicates that the statue was designed to be viewed in the round.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Year in Review for 1964." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 51, no. 10 (1964): 236-66.
• Pillsbury, Edmund P. Florence and the Arts; Five Centuries of Patronage. 1971.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.

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.