Cleveland Museum of Art

Thalia (comedy, pastoral poetry) (from the Tarocchi series D: Apollo and the Muses, #16)

Date

before 1467

Medium

engraving hand-colored with gold

Culture

Italy, Ferrara, 15th century

Department

Prints

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This engraving is part of the Tarocchi group marked with the letter “D,” and named Apollo and the Muses . In Greek mythology, the nine Muses (Calliope, Urania, Terpsichore, Erato, Polyhymnia, Thalia, Melpomene, Euterpe, and Clio) were the daughters of Zeus, king of the gods, and Mnemosyne, the Titaness of memory. The Muses were goddesses presiding over different branches of the arts and sciences. Their leader and supervisor was Apollo, the god of light, music, prophecy, and poetry. Here, Talia (Thalia) is personified as a female figure, in profile to left, seated on ivy, and set an imaginary landscape. She is playing a viola. Thalia was regarded as the Muse of comedy. Thalia is the only Muse in the Tarocchi series that is not represented with a celestial disk. Indeed, Thalia was believed to be a bucolic Muse, thus related to earth.

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