  About the Artwork
  
  
  The most influential sculptor in the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century, Quellinus received prestigious commissions for the sculptural decorations for Amsterdam's City Hall, now the Royal Palace. He created this unique modeled terracotta as a preliminary study for a carved marble relief depicting the myth of poet and musician Arion of Methymna. Kidnapped and thrown overboard by pirates, Arion played music to his rescuer - a dolphin - as he was carried to Corinth.

Some interpret this narrative as an allegory of the rescue of the Dutch Republic by William of Orange who established the Netherlands as its own sovereign republic, independent of the Spanish Habsburg Empire.
  
  
  Title
  Arion Rescued by a Dolphin
  
  
  Artwork Date
  between 1655 and 1660
  
  Artist
  Artus Quellinus
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1609-1668
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Flemish
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Terracotta modello
  
  
  Dimensions
  Overall: 14 × 24 × 3 inches (35.6 × 61 × 7.6 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Sculpture
  
  
  Department
  European Sculpture and Dec Arts
  
  
  Credit
  Museum Purchase, funds from the Robert H. Tannahill Foundation, the Joseph H. Parsons Fund and the Visiting Committee for European Sculpture and Decorative Arts in honor of Graham W.J. Beal
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2015.64
  
  
  Copyright
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