XO49/51 Aristotle and Phyllis

Left:

Matthäus Zasinger (German, born c. 1477, active 1500–1503), Aristotle and Phyllis (1500-1503), Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1953-70-210

Right:

Jan Sadeler I (Flemish, 1550–1600) After Bartholomeus Spranger (Flemish (active Prague and Italy), 1546–1611), Aristotle and Phyllis (1587-1593), Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1985-52-31921

These two images of Phyllis riding Aristotle imaginatively present the scene in different ways. In the German version, produced at the beginning of the sixteenth century, Phyllis wears a feathered headdress and both figures are fully clothed, while two bystanders observe the scene with opposite reactions. By contrast the Flemish image from the end of the sixteenth century is highly classicized with a nude Phyllis gazing out at us from atop a fully bridled Aristotle in front of stacks of books and a sculpture of an ancient soldier.