The Muses by Jacopo Robusti, called Il Tintoretto
Italian, 1578
oil on canvas
Royal Collection Trust (acquired by King Charles I)
Source: rct.uk
Source: didoofcarthage
Source: didoofcarthage
didoofcarthage reblogged
The Nine Muses
Circle of Angelica Kauffmann (1741-1807)
Terpsichore, muse of dance, and Euterpe, muse of music, from the series The Nine Muses, by Hendrick Goltzius
Dutch, c. 1592
engraving
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Source: didoofcarthage
Source: didoofcarthage
Source: didoofcarthage
Erato, muse of erotic poetry; Polyhymnia, muse of sacred poetry; and Calliope, muse of epic poetry, from the series The Nine Muses, by Hendrick Goltzius
Dutch, 1592
engraving
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Source: didoofcarthage
Apollo and the Muses (and detail) by John Singer Sargent
American, 1921
oil on canvas
MFA Boston
Source: mfa.org
Source: didoofcarthage
Ah the singing, ah the delight, the passion!
All the Loves wept, listening; sick with anguish,
Stood the crowned nine Muses about Apollo;
Fear was upon them,
While the tenth sang wonderful things they knew not.
Ah the tenth, the Lesbian! the nine were silent,
None endured the sound of her song for weeping;
Laurel by laurel,
Faded all their crowns; but about her forehead,
Round her woven tresses and ashen temples
White as dead snow, paler than grass in summer,
Ravaged with kisses,
Shone a light of fire as a crown for ever.
Yea, almost the implacable Aphrodite
Paused, and almost wept; such a song was that song.
Yea, by her name too
Called her, saying, 'Turn to me, O my Sappho;'
Yet she turned her face from the Loves, she saw not
Tears for laughter darken immortal eyelids,
Heard not about her
Fearful fitful wings of the doves departing,
Saw not how the bosom of Aphrodite
Shook with weeping, saw not her shaken raiment,
Saw not her hands wrung;
Saw the Lesbians kissing across their smitten
Lutes with lips more sweet than the sound of lute-strings,
Mouth to mouth and hand upon hand, her chosen,
Fairer than all men;
Only saw the beautiful lips and fingers,
Full of songs and kisses and little whispers,
Full of music; only beheld among them
Soar, as a bird soars
Newly fledged, her visible song, a marvel,
Made of perfect sound and exceeding passion,
Sweetly shapen, terrible, full of thunders,
Clothed with the wind's wings.
Algernon Charles Swinburne, “Sapphics”
Source: poetryfoundation.org
Whether on Ida's shady brow,
Or in the chambers of the East,
The chambers of the sun, that now
From ancient melody have ceas'd;
Whether in Heav'n ye wander fair,
Or the green corners of the earth,
Or the blue regions of the air,
Where the melodious winds have birth;
Whether on crystal rocks ye rove,
Beneath the bosom of the sea
Wand'ring in many a coral grove,
Fair Nine, forsaking Poetry!
How have you left the ancient love
That bards of old enjoy'd in you!
The languid strings do scarcely move!
The sound is forc'd, the notes are few!
William Blake, “To the Muses”
Source: poetryfoundation.org
Claude Lorrain, Landscape with Apollo and the Muses, 1652
μουσάων Ἑλικωνιάδων ἀρχώμεθ᾽ ἀείδειν,
αἵθ᾽ Ἑλικῶνος ἔχουσιν ὄρος μέγα τε ζάθεόν τε
καί τε περὶ κρήνην ἰοειδέα πόσσ᾽ ἁπαλοῖσιν
ὀρχεῦνται καὶ βωμὸν ἐρισθενέος Κρονίωνος.
καί τε λοεσσάμεναι τέρενα χρόα Περμησσοῖο
ἢ Ἵππου κρήνης ἢ Ὀλμειοῦ ζαθέοιο
ἀκροτάτῳ Ἑλικῶνι χοροὺς ἐνεποιήσαντο
καλούς, ἱμερόεντας: ἐπερρώσαντο δὲ ποσσίν.
Hesiod, Theogony, 1-8
“With the Muses of Helicon, let us begin to sing, / who hold the mountain of Helicon, both great and sacred, / and around a violet-like spring and an altar of the mighty son of Cronus, they dance with gentle feet. / And after washing their delicate skin in the waters of the Permessus / or of the spring of the Horse or of the holy Olmeius, / on the highest point of Helicon, they make dances, / beautiful, charming: and they move on nimble feet.”
Source: didoofcarthage
leuc-deactivated20150726
Pompeo Batoni, Apollo and two muses, c 1741.
didoofcarthage reblogged
EVERDINGEN, Caesar van Four Muses and Pegasus on Parnassus c. 1650 Oil on canvas, 340 x 230 cm Huis ten Bosch, The Hague