Marsyas1.0017_GiulioRomano

Giulio Romano, c. 1499-1546, cartoon in ink and wash over chalk, sketch for fresco in the 1527-1528 decoration of the Sala di Ovidio, Palazzo del Tè, Mantua.

"The myth of Marsyas was endlessly fascinating for ancient and modern artists, owing to its tragic conclusion as much as to the manifold forms of opposition symbolized by the contest between reckless satyr and the god Apollo. In 16th century art, the flaying of Marsyas was depicted with even greater crudity than in Roman sculpture, with the victim shown [as in Titian] helplessly hanged upside-down." Grafton, Most, & De Settis fig. 92.

Giulio Romano was apparently the first artist to depic Marsyas in the most humiliating position. His spread legs cause his body to mirror Apollo's cithara, held by the god's attendant. The Scythian assistant is about to start the gruesome removal of Marsyas' skin at his scrotum. Does Apollo make eye contact with the victim in this scene? The crouching god has not yet achieved the role assigned to him about 40 years later in his own painting (cf. Marsyas1.0035_Titian).

For further reading:
Moog-Grünewald, RMM s.v. "Marsyas" [HJDrügh]
Rapp, J. (1987), "Tizians Maryas in Kremsier. Ein neuplatonisch-orphisches Mysterium vom Leiden des Menschen und seiner Erlösung," Pantheon 45: 70-89.

figure 82 in Grafton, Most, and Settis, The Classical Tradition, s.v. "parodies"