Apollo with Cupid and the Muses, 19Th Century

anticSwiss 26/09/2021 06:55:50 http://www.anticswiss.com

Apollo with Cupid and the Muses, 19th century

FOR SALE ANTIQUE DEALER Period: 19° secolo - 1800 Ars Antiqua srl Milano Style: Altri stili +39 02 29529057 393664680856 Height:57cm Width:104cm Material:Olio su tela Price:4800€

DETAILED DESCRIPTION:

Neoclassical artist, 19th century Apollo with Cupid and the Muses Oil on canvas, 57.5 x 104 cm Signed “SG” in accordance with Hesiod's Theogony, the Muses were daughters of Zeus and Mnemosine, the Memory. Initially at the Olympus to cheer the divinities with eternal dances and songs aimed at celebrating the victory of their father over the Titans, the Muses later moved to Mount Parnàso, where they continued the dances but at the service of men. In the meantime, in fact, Apollo had become their protector, who according to certain traditions would have derived from them the art of music and poetry. Watched by Apollo, the Muses began to inspire and advise how many free poets and painters had turned to them in search of divine inspiration. It was from late Hellenism that the Muses, with an uncertain number, specified and accepted specific attributes in their iconography to differentiate themselves. In the beginning they were generically distinguished for being the inspirers of poetry, history, astronomy, righteousness or declamatory arts. In the present painting three Muses are depicted paying attention to Apollo, who points to them in turn. Cupid intercedes between the divinities, an intermediary of love in general, here an allegory of the lively collaborative passion between the parties. Given the lack of canonical attributes, one might believe that these Muses generally symbolize poetry, astronomy or justice; however, the possibility of recognizing in the left muse the replica of a Hellenistic marble Terpsichore of the 2nd century BC (Manyas Museum of Fine Arts in Turkey), allows to recognize specific identities in the depicted. In addition to Tersìcore, who set the rhythm of the dances with the music of his own zither, similarly sculpted, for example, by Antonio Canova (1811, in the collection of the Magnani Rocca di Parma Foundation), it is also possible to identify the seated sisters. Given their equal footing on a suppedàneo, on the left would be Clio, giver of celebrity and muse of history, while in the veiled one would be Urania, muse of astronomy, or Polìmnia, protector of oratory and hymns. Apollo, wearing a rare Phrygian cap on his head, is painted on the escort of the Apollo of Belvedere (IV BC, Cortile del Belvedere, Vatican Museums) and of the Apollo frescoed by Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-1779) for the Parnassus of 1761 by Villa Albani in Rome, returning,

1 / 3 anticSwiss 26/09/2021 06:55:50 http://www.anticswiss.com on canvas, to the preparatory study carried out by the same artist and now preserved in the Hermitage. The work, signed at the bottom "SG", can be compared to the artistic production of the neoclassical age for formal themes and figurative lexicon; the reference to Mengs would therefore denounce the same basin of cultural models, cultivated within the repertoire of Neoclassicism. https://www.anticswiss.com/en/fine-art-antiques/apollo-with-cupid-and-the-muses-19th-century-24802

2 / 3 anticSwiss 26/09/2021 06:55:50 http://www.anticswiss.com

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