Apollo Slaying Python, plate one from The History of Apollo and Daphne

Prints and Drawings

c. 1532

Master of the Die (Italian, active c. 1530-1560)
after Baldassare Peruzzi (Italian, 1481-1536)

The alteration to this impression is not initially evident, but closer inspection reveals that this predominantly nude Apollo is missing his genitalia. A viewer deliberately scraped away the ink at the god’s crotch in a campaign of extremely localized censorship. Given how modestly Apollo was originally endowed, this change does not significantly alter the image overall. Rather, the god’s sizable arrow quiver dangles more provocatively between his legs than his own penis ever did. The objecting viewer, apparently lacking a grasp of age-old visual puns, may not have realized that, with his alteration, the visual emphasis merely shifted to this larger and more obvious phallus substitute.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Master of the Die
Title: Apollo Slaying Python, plate one from The History of Apollo and Daphne
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1527–1537
Medium: Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions: Image plate: 21.8 × 17.6 cm (8 5/8 × 6 15/16 in.); Text plate: 2.6 × 17.6 cm (1 1/16 × 6 15/16 in.); Sheet: 24 × 17.6 cm (9 1/2 × 6 15/16 in.)
Credit Line: The Wallace L. DeWolf and Joseph Brooks Fair Collections
Reference Number: 1920.2327
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/80137/manifest.json

Bartsch XV.197.19 II

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Apollo Slaying Python, plate one from The History of Apollo and Daphne

Currently Off View

Date:

Artist:

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Artist

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Place

Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.