The Judgement of Midas: Apollo and Pan n.d.

This small drawing in pen and brown ink depicts a scene from Ovid’s *Metamorphoses*. It was made in Italy around 1570, within the circle of the artist Jacopo Zanguidi Bertoja. The story shows a musical contest between Apollo, playing the lira, and Pan, playing his pipes. King Midas, on the right, foolishly judges Pan to be the better musician and Apollo punishes him by turning his ears into those of an ass. In the 16th century, the tale served as a warning against bad judgement and lack of taste. But it also tells us something about the courtly culture of the time, where refined artistic patronage served as a way of legitimizing noble power. Drawings like this are valuable resources for social historians of art because they provide a window into artistic practices and courtly values. Through careful study of such images, alongside letters, poems, and other texts, we can better understand the social world of Renaissance Italy.