{
"data": {
"id": 104777,
"accession_number": "1923.1101",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "The Birth of Venus , c. 1516. Marco Dente (Italian, c. 1486\u20131527), after Raphael (Italian, 1483\u20131520). Engraving; sheet: 26.3 x 17.5 cm (10 3/8 x 6 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Ralph King, 1923.1101",
"current_location": null,
"title": "The Birth of Venus ",
"creation_date": "c. 1516",
"creation_date_earliest": 1511,
"creation_date_latest": 1521,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Italy, 16th century"
],
"technique": "engraving",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Prints",
"collection": "PR - Engraving",
"type": "Print",
"measurements": "Sheet: 26.3 x 17.5 cm (10 3/8 x 6 7/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.263,
"height_inch": 10,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.375,
"width": 0.175,
"width_inch": 6,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.875
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 344612,
"title": "Miscellaneous Prints and Drawings from the Museum Collections",
"description": "Miscellaneous Prints and Drawings from the Museum Collections. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (June 23-October 23, 1924).",
"opening_date": "1924-06-23T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311945,
"title": "The Sea",
"description": "The Sea. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 23-October 25, 1950).",
"opening_date": "1950-09-23T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 193792,
"title": "Drawn to the Body: The Human Figure and the Graphic Arts, 1500-1900",
"description": "Drawn to the Body: The Human Figure and the Graphic Arts, 1500-1900. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 14-May 23, 1999).",
"opening_date": "1999-03-14T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 185234,
"title": "Early Italian Engraving: 1460's - 1530's",
"description": "Early Italian Engraving: 1460's - 1530's. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 25-October 27, 2002).",
"opening_date": "2002-08-25T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 288386,
"title": "Gods and Heroes: Ancient Legends in Renaissance Art",
"description": "Gods and Heroes: Ancient Legends in Renaissance Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-December 31, 2017).",
"opening_date": "2017-08-26T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 668609,
"title": "Creation, Birth, and Rebirth",
"description": "Creation, Birth, and Rebirth. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 17, 2024-July 16, 2025).",
"opening_date": "2024-08-17T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Main Gallery Rotation (gallery 117): October 7, 2013 - January 21, 2014.",
"opening_date": "2013-10-07T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Ralph King [1855-1926], Cleveland Heights, OH, given to The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20131923",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "December 20, 1923\u2013",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": null,
"description": "Marco Dente was one of several printmakers who re-created Raphael\u2019s designs as engravings. Both of Dente\u2019s compositions after Raphael relate to the latter\u2019s frescos in the stufetta, or bathroom, of Cardinal Bernardo Dovizi da Bibbiena\u2019s apartments in the Vatican Palace. A scholar of classical antiquity and a patron of the arts, the Cardinal personally chose these mildly erotic female nudes, a common subject in bathroom decorations, even for members of the clergy. Depicted here is Venus, the goddess of love and fertility. According to the myth of her birth, she was created in sea foam from the castrated genitals of the primeval sky god Uranus. In the clouds, Uranus\u2019s son Saturn, the god of time, prepares to mutilate his father with a curved sword. Meanwhile, Venus steps out of frothy waves onto a seashell.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60753218"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1923.1101-the-birth-of-venus"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Zeitler, Kurt, and Pinakothek der Moderne (Munich, Germany). Den Menschen Vor Augen : Ku\u0308Nstlerische Strategien Seiner Darstellung in Italienischen Zeichnungen 1450-1750. Berlin, Mu\u0308nchen: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2025.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
}
],
"catalogue_raisonne": "Bartsch XIV.243.323 ; Le Blanc II.111.17 ; Pass. VI.69.31",
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1923.1101",
"images": {
"annotation": null,
"web": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1923.1101/1923.1101_web.jpg",
"width": "608",
"height": "893",
"filesize": "455375",
"filename": "1923.1101_web.jpg"
},
"print": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1923.1101/1923.1101_print.jpg",
"width": "2315",
"height": "3400",
"filesize": "5906564",
"filename": "1923.1101_print.jpg"
},
"full": {
"url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1923.1101/1923.1101_full.tif",
"width": "2888",
"height": "4241",
"filesize": "36777872",
"filename": "1923.1101_full.tif"
}
},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Gift of Ralph King",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 104777,
"creators": [
{
"id": 4629,
"description": "Marco Dente (Italian, c. 1486\u20131527)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1486",
"death_year": "1527",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
},
{
"id": 4584,
"description": "Raphael (Italian, 1483\u20131520)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": "after",
"role": "artist",
"biography": "Raffaello Sanzio (Urbino, April 6, 1483-Rome, April 6, 1520), commonly known as Raphael, was one of the most admired Italian painters and architects on the High Renaissance. He was trained in his native city Urbino, a center of art and culture during the rule of the Duke Federico da Montefeltro. Around 1495, Raphael moved to Perugia and joined the master Pietro Perugino's workshop. He later sojourned to Siena, and then resided in Florence by the autumn of 1504. There, Raphael studied the works by Renaissance masters such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Fra Bartolomeo, and Masaccio. Raphael is best known for his paintings of Madonnas (from 1504 through 1507), and the frescoes that Pope Julio II commissioned to him in the Vatican Palace in Rome in 1514. The same year architect Donato Bramante died, and the pope appointed Raphael chief architect. Raphael's style was based on clarity of forms and harmonious compositions; after his death, his works were highly admired by both Mannerist and Baroque artists.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1483",
"death_year": "1520",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 2
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1923-12-20T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1511,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1516",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:47:00.616000"
}
}