Examined is the discovery of an engraved rock crystal evidently serving as the master prototype for a quantity of late 15th century bronze plaquettes. A relationship of the rock crystal with Lorenzo de’ Medici is drawn by way of a relationship with its subject: a Head of Pan. Also discussed is the crystal’s reproduction in a sketch by a young Michelangelo and finally surveyed is the curious loss of the object’s meaning in exchange for what would become a universally vilified image of Attila the Hun.
