Victory Surrounded by Prisoners and Trophies

1552

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Dominant colour

Victory Surrounded by Prisoners and Trophies is a 1552 by Frans Floris the Elder, a Renaissance work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Frans Floris the Elder
When & what style?: 1552 · Renaissance
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

A woman stands tall in the center, golden wings on her back. Around her, naked men lie tangled in chains, and piles of armor and flags spill across the ground. Floris painted this after studying Michelangelo’s ceiling in Rome. The bodies twist like they’re carved in stone, not flesh—he brought that sculpted look back to Flanders. The original painting is lost; this is just an old print of it. To see how Michelangelo shaped bodies like this, look up *sfumato*.

The story of this work

Overview

In Victory Surrounded by Prisoners and Trophies, Frans Floris portrayed a standing female figure in the center, the personification of Victory, surrounded by a multitude of nudes and trophies (or spoils of war), which she has vanquished. The nudes were inspired by Roman friezes as well as figures that Floris had studied on Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes during an extended trip to Italy in the 1540s. The etching is based on a painted composition (now lost) that Floris made a few years earlier to adorn a triumphal arch, one of numerous ephemeral arches featured in festive decorations…