Toad (c. 1500–1550 or later): Art, History and Details
Toad at the Cleveland Museum of Art: c. 1500–1550 or later, bronze. Explore the work's context, creator attribution and collection history.
Toad (c. 1500–1550 or later) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.
The work and its context
The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:
Casting animals from life was a common Renaissance practice, connected to scholars’ interest in natural history and a taste for oddities. Drowning the toad in ammonia left the animal’s body intact. The workshop then manipulated the head, opened the mouth, and cast the creature as a functional object for the study.
Object facts
- Title: Toad
- Date: c. 1500–1550 or later
- Culture: Italy, possibly Padua, 16th century
- Type: Sculpture
- Technique: bronze
- Dimensions: Overall: 8.3 x 13 cm (3 1/4 x 5 1/8 in.)
- Collection: Sculpture
- Department: European Painting and Sculpture
- Accession number: 1987.5
Collection credit
The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
Further reading listed by the museum
- Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1987.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 2 (February 1988): 30–71.
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.
Sources
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