Art Institute of Chicago

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

Master of the Die (Italian, active c. 1530-1560)

Date

c. 1532

Medium

Engraving in black on ivory laid paper

Culture

Italy

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

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.

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