The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 28, 2024

Toad

Toad

c. 1500–1550 or later

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.
  • 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=28 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

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