Polyhymnia

Fagnani, Giuseppe (1819-1873)


Item type:
painting
Date of creation:
19th century
Height:
110.5 cm  (43 1/2 in.)
Width:
83.8 cm  (33 in.)
Signature: [at lower right]: J.F. Inscription: [at upper left]: IIOAYMNIA [in Greek]
Technique / Medium:
oil on canvas

    Item location

  • Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
    American Paintings and Sculpture[Museum inv. no.: 74.45]Gift of an Association of Ladies and Gentlemen, 1874

Description

The Muse of Heroic Hyman sits holding a scroll in her right hand and a lyre with three strings (in the shape of an antiqued-kithara) leaning against her right leg.

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Lyre [3501] (Antiqued kithara. Stylised.)

RIdIM images


Image URLs

image link 1

Notes

This is one of a series of nine paintings depicting American society belles as Muses (all at the Metropolitan Museum of New York). According to contemporary accounts, the project was intended to prove that American women were as beautiful as their European counterparts. The model here was Mrs Francis Channing Barlow (Miss Ellen Shaw) of Boston.

RIdIM record id

3210