Currently not on view
Relief: Swimmer (Leander),
ca. 1390
Embriachi Workshop, Italian, 14th–15th century
y1929-16
According to Ovid's Metamorphoses, Leander was the lover of Hero, a virgin priestess of Venus. Each night, he swam the Hellespont, guided by the light Hero lit in her tower. One night, the light was extinguished, and Leander drowned. Seeing his body, Hero drowned herself.
Information
Title
Relief: Swimmer (Leander)
Dates
ca. 1390
Maker
Medium
Bone
Dimensions
8.7 × 4 × 1 cm (3 7/16 × 1 9/16 × 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase
Object Number
y1929-16
Place Made
Europe, Italy, Venice or Florence
Culture
Type
Materials
Subject
(Art Market, Rome) [1]; 1929 museum purchase.
[1] purchase by F.J. Mather, Jr. Source probably from memory; FJM bought three pieces from E. Ruegg, Lausanne, in 1924.
- Archer St. Clair, Elizabeth Parker McLachlan, The carver's art, Medieval sculpture in ivory, bone, and horn, (New Brunswick: Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, 1989)., cat. no. 76
- Richard Randall, The golden age of ivory: Gothic carvings in North American collections, (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1993)., p. 46-47;p. 46 (illus.); no. 28
