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"tombstone": "Inkwell and Candlestick with the Infant Hercules Killing the Serpents, c. 1510\u201320. Workshop of Severo da Ravenna (Italian, c. 1496\u2013c. 1543). Bronze; overall: 21 x 11 x 13 cm (8 1/4 x 4 5/16 x 5 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund, 1954.798",
"current_location": "118 Italian Renaissance",
"title": "Inkwell and Candlestick with the Infant Hercules Killing the Serpents",
"creation_date": "c. 1510\u201320",
"creation_date_earliest": 1505,
"creation_date_latest": 1525,
"artists_tags": [
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"culture": [
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"technique": "bronze",
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"department": "European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "Sculpture",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 21 x 11 x 13 cm (8 1/4 x 4 5/16 x 5 1/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.21,
"height_inch": 8,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.25,
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"depth": 0.13,
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"current": [
{
"id": 310042,
"title": "Images of the Mind",
"description": "Images of the Mind. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 7-August 30, 1987).",
"opening_date": "1987-07-07T04:00:00"
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"description": "15th and 16th century Sculpture in Bronze and Wood lent by Dr. Ernst Wittman, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, (fall, 1943-1944).",
"opening_date": "1943-01-01T00:00:00"
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"provenance": [
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"description": "Henry Joseph Pfungst, lived 1844\u20131917 (Britain).",
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"footnotes": null,
"date": "",
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{
"description": "John Pierpont Morgan, lived 1837\u20131915, (New York, New York).",
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{
"description": "Ern\u00f6 Wittmann (Budapest, Hungary), died 1963, sold through R. Stora & Co. (New York, New York) to the Cleveland Museum of Art.",
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"description": "In the early 1500s, Padua, a center of strong humanist traditions, encouraged the revival of classicism, and artists took their cues from descriptions in the works of classical authors. Classical small-scale bronzes grew in demand, and in response, the city's bourgeoning foundries produced a varied and extensive supply of small statues. Like many early Paduan bronzes, this work's utilitarian function\u2014used to hold ink and to supply light\u2014is complimented by its ornamental value. The base consists of an eagle claw, cast from life, supporting an equally realistic nautilus shell. Though medieval artists had occasionally used seashells to hold paints, the shell inkwell, whose small size makes it rather impractical to use, was a motif particular to Padua. Perched upon the shell is most likely Hercules, the son of Zeus. Perhaps aided by a staff (now missing) he is poised to strike a serpent, which according to myth was sent by Hera, the jealous wife of Zeus, to kill him. The dramatic opposition of hero and monster enhances the connection to the classical past, further meeting the desires of the educated patrons of Padua.",
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"citation": "Winter, Patrick M. de. \u201cRecent Accessions of Italian Renaissance Decorative Arts, Part I: Incorporating Notes on the Sculptor Severo Da Ravenna.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 73, no. 3 (March 1986): 74\u2013138.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 104, fig. 67",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25159934"
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"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. Images of the Mind. Cleveland, Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1987.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: [p. 11]",
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