Cleveland Museum of Art

Apollo and the Muses Awakened by the Call of Fame

Date

1590s

Medium

pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash over graphite

Culture

Italy, 16th century

Department

Drawings

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Here a barely visible Apollo, sleeping in the upper left background, and the nine muses are roused by the allegorical figure of Fame, who flies overhead with a trumpet. This dynamic scene signifies a reawakening of the arts. The loosely arranged clusters of figures and natural forms also suggest a harmonious relationship between humanity and the environment. This drawing, with its heavily subdued details and attention to the overall impact of contrast and design, is characteristic of Venetian draftsmanship in the late 1500s, and was valued by the small circle of Venetian intellectuals for whom Palma produced many similar mythological works.

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