Art Institute of Chicago
Phalaris and the Bull of Perillus
Attributed to Giovanni Caccini (Italian, 1556-1612)
- Date
- 1590–1600
- Medium
- Terracotta with traces of polychromy
- Culture
- Italy
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
This classical subject tells the cautionary tale of the sculptor Perillus, who offered to make a bronze bull in which the tyrant Phalaris could roast his enemies. Perillus was rewarded by being the contraption’s first victim. In the Renaissance this story was interpreted as a moral fable of how bad advice rebounds on the giver, and it is here presented against the backdrop of a large, contemporary piazza. The relief is attributed to Giovanni Caccini on the basis of its stylistic relationship to his best-known work, the bronze panes of the doors of Pisa Cathedral.
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Linked open data
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- Object type
- AAT300301253
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