Cleveland Museum of Art
Mars, Minerva, Venus, and Cupid
Valerio BelliLinkedCulture matchlcp-4bd35d2153b0
- Date
- early 1500s
- Medium
- rock crystal intaglio, gilded from reverse with gold and silver, backed with lapis lazuli, mounted in a gold pendant
- Culture
- Italy, 16th century
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Institution
- Cleveland Museum of Art
- Object ID
- 166197
From the Cleveland Museum of Art record
Mars, the god of war, chooses Minerva over Venus, goddesses representing Virtue and Vice. The subject was common in antiquity, although the male figure traditionally represents Hercules. The snake passing from Minerva to Mars lionizes wisdom, perhaps indicating that the patron, who has yet to be identified, connected the idea of a difficult choice to a specific military or political problem. Lapis lazuli, the stone used in this pendant, was first mined in Afghanistan 9000 years ago.
The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.
Get printable QR codesHide QR codes
Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.
Provenance & credit
As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.
- Credit line
- Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Provenance
- Sold, Christie's, London, King Street, December 6, 2006, lot 90, to Guglielo Melodia. | Guglielmo Melodia (London, England), sold, Sotheby's, London, December 2, 2008, lot 35, to the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Related across collections
Semantically similar works from Cleveland Museum of Art and other institutions.