Classical Gods, Muses, and Allegorical Figures

Giuseppe Salviati (Giuseppe Porta, called Il Salviati)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Based on the attributes of the figures, the subject matter of this composition has been identified as a gathering of the Classical gods Apollo, Mercury, and Pallas, accompanied by the muses, as well as by the allegorical figures of Prudence and Fame. The flying figure of Mercury at upper right, with caduceus in hand, injects diagonal movement to the asymmetrical group of recumbent figures around the music-making Apollo at upper left. The study may have been preparatory for the central painting on the ceiling of the Sala dell'Anticollegio at the Palazzo Ducale in Venice. Executed by Giuseppe Porta in 1566-67, the project was destroyed in the fire of 1574: the drawing represents a crucial visual testimony of this lost work. Philip Pouncey, specialist in Italian Old Master Drawings, first discovered the correct attribution of this drawing (see here ‘References’ and McTavish 1981 and McTavish 2004). (C.C.B.)

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