Landscape with the Flaying of Marsyas

According to myth, Marsyas challenged Apollo to a musical contest, pitting his pipes against the god's lyre, with the stakes giving the winner the right to do as he pleasesd with the loser. Apollo won and chose to skin the presumptuous Marsyas alive. Landscape with the Flaying of Marsyas features an outcropping where a path emerges from a forest to offer a view of a river valley. At the edge of the woods, in the middle of the scene, Apollo and two other figures exact punishment on Marsyas, who has been tied to the trunk of a shattered tree. Though the small figure group is relatively calm for such a harrowing event, Henry Mauperché imparts energy to the scene through his rapid, nervous attack on the plate with his etching needle.