The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Toad

c. 1500–1550 or later

Italy, possibly Padua, 16th century

bronze
Overall: 8.3 x 13 cm (3 1/4 x 5 1/8 in.)
The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 1987.5
Location: 118 Italian Renaissance

Description

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.
  • Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, 1614-1662 (Vienna, Austria) (Inventory of 1659).
    Imperial Treasury (Vienna, Austria) (Inventory of 1750).
    Ambras Castle (near Innsbruck, Austria), 1871.
    Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 1891 (Inventory 5933, sold 1923).
    R. Weininger (New York, New York).
    Rainer Zietz, (London, England), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1987.
  • Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1987.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 75, no. 2 (February 1988): 30–71. Mentioned: p. 65, no. 15; Reproduced: p. 52 www.jstor.org
  • The Year in Review for 1987. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 24-April 17, 1988).
  • {{cite web|title=Toad|url=false|author=|year=c. 1500–1550 or later|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1987.5