Artwork Page for The Flaying of Marsyas

Details / Information for The Flaying of Marsyas

The Flaying of Marsyas

c. 1570–1605

Jan van der Straet, called Johannes Stradanus

(Netherlandish, active Italy, 1523–1605)
Culture
Netherlands, 16th - 17th century
Medium
Pen and brown ink and brown and red washes, heightened with white paint (or gouache), on paper prepared with red washes
Measurements
Sheet: 21.1 x 31.5 cm (8 5/16 x 12 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2018.26
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
Print

Description

In this gruesome mythological scene, Apollo begins to flay, or peel the skin off, the satyr Marsyas as punishment for his arrogant challenge in a musical contest. The surrounding Olympian gods show reactions ranging from horror to fascination. The artist Johannes Stradanus helped found the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno (Academy of the Arts of Drawing) in Florence in 1563, which instituted a course of training for artists that included observing a human dissection. In making this image, Stradanus very likely understood the flaying of Marsyas as a metaphor for the importance of dissection and anatomical study to the artist.
A horizontally oriented drawing in pen and ink with red washes is crowded with people with light skin tones, at the center of which a man flays another tied to a tree. To the left, a seated woman rests her hand on a child beside a helmeted soldier. To the right, a woman with a crescent moon headpiece sits holding a bow. White highlights define muscular figures across the red-toned paper.

The Flaying of Marsyas

c. 1570–1605

Jan van der Straet, called Johannes Stradanus

(Netherlandish, active Italy, 1523–1605)
Netherlands, 16th - 17th century

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