Marsyas

During his long stay in Italy, Balthasar Permoser worked for the ducal court of the Medici in Florence, in the atelier of Giovanni Battista Foggini. Here he absorbed fully the spirit of Italian baroque art, and he was instrumental in transporting the style north of the Alps, where it flourished well into the eighteenth century.

Carved during his Italian period, the bust of Marsyas embodies the lessons the artist learned in Rome and Florence, while revealing his own distinctive artistic character.

Permoser took inspiration from Bernini’s famous work, the Damned Soul. That bust similarly shows a man screaming, face muscles taut and hair coursing wildly. Permoser carried aspects of this bust further, unafraid to exaggerate features to the point of deformity.