Description
Casting animals from life was a common Renaissance practice, connected to scholars’ interest in natural history and a taste for oddities. Drowning the toad in ammonia left the animal’s body intact. The workshop then manipulated the head, opened the mouth, and cast the creature as a functional object for the study.
Provenance
Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, 1614-1662 (Vienna, Austria) (Inventory of 1659).; Imperial Treasury (Vienna, Austria) (Inventory of 1750).; Ambras Castle (near Innsbruck, Austria), 1871.; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 1891 (Inventory 5933, sold 1923).; R. Weininger (New York, New York).; Rainer Zietz, (London, England), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1987.
Accession Number
1987.5
Medium
bronze
Dimensions
Overall: 8.3 x 13 cm (3 1/4 x 5 1/8 in.)
Classification
Sculpture
Credit Line
The Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
