Marsyas
Mid-19th-Century Life-Size Plaster Cast
Marsyas
Brussels Atelier de Moulages
Lifesize Plaster Cast
Belgium
Mid-19th Century
51" x 15" x 11"
This dramatic life-size plaster cast depicts Marsyas, the satyr of Greek mythology whose musical challenge to Apollo became one of antiquity’s most enduring subjects of artistic ambition, punishment and suffering.
The sculpture belongs to the celebrated Hanging Marsyas type, showing Marsyas suspended with his arms raised as he awaits his punishment. The composition emphasizes the elongated torso, strained musculature and psychological tension of the figure. The Capitoline Museums preserve a monumental Roman Imperial example of this sculptural type, described as a copy after a Late Hellenistic original.
Produced within the historic tradition of Brussels museum plaster casting, this example has the scale and presence associated with the academic casts created for museums, artists, academies and collections. The Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels maintain a historic plaster-cast workshop whose origins reach back to the nineteenth century and whose collection preserves more than 4,000 molds.
Marks & Documentation:
Importantly, this cast retains two inset metal institutional/workshop plaques, providing physical documentary evidence associated with its Belgian origin.
One oval plaque is clearly inscribed “INVENTAIRE GÉNÉRAL / N° 1751 / BELGIQUE,” together with partially legible outer museum wording beginning “MUSÉE ROYAL…”. A second oval plaque bears additional institutional/workshop lettering. Together, these surviving marks materially strengthen the documented connection of this particular cast to the historic Belgian museum-casting tradition.
The plaques should remain photographed and reproduced on the page as part of the object’s permanent documentation.
Historical Context:
During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, European museums developed important collections of plaster casts so that major works of sculpture could be studied beyond the institutions housing the originals. Museums exchanged molds and produced casts for teaching, scholarship and artistic training. The Brussels plaster-cast workshop remains active today, continuing these traditional casting practices.
The Hanging Marsyas became an especially powerful sculptural subject because of the tension between the figure’s restrained pose and the violence implicit in the myth. Ancient versions survive in major museum collections, providing the historical precedent for later museum and academic casts such as the present work
Price $12,500
Marsyas — Life-Size Plaster Cast
