Allegory of Music or Erato
Lippi, Filippino (ca. 1457-1504)
- Staatliche Museen zu Berlin - Kupferstichkabinett
Item location
Description
There is a lyre of a peculiar form in the painting. Such a fantastic instrument more than likely would have been unsuitable for playing. Its frame is a head of a stag, and the strings are stretched across the cross-bands mounted on the antlers. The painter even placed a piece of bone next to it. The stag has been used by painters to represent Hearing because of its keen ears; thus it may be connected with the concept of music.It is proposed that in the form of a winged putto even Zephyrus may have a role in the depiction of music, since the swans sing only when the mild western wind blows, while the musicians require a certain breath of personal glory to inspire them to play. The putti who play with the swan, on the other hand, may belong to a third female figure, Leda. Jupiter, in the form of a swan, seduced her, and their love bore two sets of twins, although in paintings usually only two children are depicted. This detail reveals that Leonardo da Vinci's painting - lost and only known from copies - influenced Lippi.
Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)
Lyre [3501]Syrinx [4084]
Piffaro [4239]
Image URLs
image link 1Bibliographic references
Ember, Ildikó. Music in painting: Music as a symbol in Renaissance and Baroque painting. Trans. by Mary and András Boros-Kazai (Budapest: Corvina, 1984) plate 18. ISBN 9631317234. RILM 1984-6813.Barbessi, Elisa. "La représentation anthropomorphique de Musique et Harmonie dans la littérature mythographique aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles", Musique, images, instruments: Revue française d'organologie et d'iconographie musicale 19 (2024) 164-177. RILM 2025-0919.