{
"data": {
"id": 166197,
"accession_number": "2008.147",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Mars, Minerva, Venus, and Cupid, early 1500s. Valerio Belli (Italian, c. 1468\u20131546). Rock crystal intaglio, gilded from reverse with gold and silver, backed with lapis lazuli, mounted in a gold pendant; overall: 6 cm (2 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 2008.147",
"current_location": "117A Italian Renaissance",
"title": "Mars, Minerva, Venus, and Cupid",
"creation_date": "early 1500s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1500,
"creation_date_latest": 1550,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Italy"
],
"technique": "rock crystal intaglio, gilded from reverse with gold and silver, backed with lapis lazuli, mounted in a gold pendant",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "Sculpture",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 6 cm (2 3/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.06,
"height_inch": 2,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.375,
"length": 0.043,
"length_inch": 1,
"length_inch_fraction": 0.6875
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "VALERIUS\u00b7VI\u00b7F ",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Sold, Christie's, London, King Street, December 6, 2006, lot 90, to Guglielo Melodia.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "Guglielmo Melodia (London, England), sold, Sotheby's, London, December 2, 2008, lot 35, to the Cleveland Museum of Art.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Lapis lazuli, the stone used in this pendant, was first mined in Afghanistan 9000 years ago.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "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.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60746267"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-2008.147-mars-minerva-venus-a"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Seydl, Jon L. \"High Renaissance Sculpture.\" Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 50, no. 4 (July/August 2010): 10-12.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 10",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2010-04/page/n9/mode/2up"
},
{
"citation": "Seydl, Jon L. \"Return to the Renaissance.\" Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 52, no. 6 (November/December 2012): 13.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 13",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2012-06/page/n11/mode/2up"
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2008.147",
"images": {
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"width": "743",
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"filesize": "436427",
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"date_created": "2009-03-19T19:12:02",
"annotation": ""
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],
"creditline": "Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 166197,
"creators": [
{
"id": 7591,
"description": "Valerio Belli (Italian, c. 1468\u20131546)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1468",
"death_year": "1546",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2008-12-08T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1500,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "early 1500s",
"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": "2026-08-21 12:43:19.490000"
}
}