Two Muses

Charles Le Brun

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This drawing is a preparatory composition for a ceiling painting in the Hôtel de la Rivière on the Place Royale, which is today 14 place des Vosges. Built for Antoine Ribaud, controller of finances from 1606-1607, the hôtel was acquired in 1652 by Louis Barbier de la Rivière, bishop of Langres. The contract for the commission dates December 31, 1652, and it details the decoration of two adjacent rooms on the first floor: "la Grand Chambre" and "le Grand Cabinet." Le Brun painted a Triumph of Psyche on the ceiling of the Grande Chambre, which depicted four scenes depicting episodes from the life of Psyche. In addition, each corner of the coving contained eight muses called upon by Apuleius to entertain guests at the wedding of Cupid and Psyche. The MMA sheet depicts the muse of music, Euterpe, who plays a flute; the second muse is Urania, the muse of astronomy, whose hand rests on her attribute—the celestial globe.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art