Detail of Apollo and the Muses on Mount Helicon by Claude Lorrain in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, June 2010

Apollo and the Muses on Mount Helicon
1680
Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée), French (active in Rome), about 1600–1682

Dimensions: 99.7 x 136.5 cm (39 1/4 x 53 3/4 in.)

Material: Oil on canvas

Classification: Paintings
Type: Mythological; Landscape

Accession Number: 12.1050

Born in the Lorraine region of France, Claude settled early in Italy and spent most of his life painting the countryside around Rome, with its many associations to the ancient world. This painting, done when he was eighty-two years old, represents Apollo, god of poetry and music, surrounded by the nine Muses, goddesses of the creative arts. At the upper right is the winged horse Pegasus, who has kicked a rock to release the spring that is the source of ...artistic inspiration. Although most of Claude's paintings included biblical or classical themes, their true subject was the light, atmosphere, and poetic mood of the natural world.


Text from: www.mfa.org/collections/object/apollo-and-the-muses-on-mo...