Skip navigation
Apollo and the Muses at the Parnassus, E869
Helle Nanny Brendstrup
Thorvaldsens Museum

Explanation

  • When Anton Raphael Mengs (1728 – 1779) painted Apollo as a leader of the muses, holding his lyre in hand while surrounded by Mnemosyne and the muses, he took Raphael’s large, semi-circular fresco in the Vatican as his model. (See the engraving of Giovanni Volpato, Inv.no. E1074). Mengs painted his painting for the Villa Albani in Rome, which Thorvaldsen also visited around 1805.

Dimension

  • Height (plate size) 500 mm
  • Height (paper size) 520 mm
  • Width (plate size) 760 mm
  • Width (paper size) 790 mm

  • Inscription / Certification / Label

    Ant. Raph. Mengs pinx. / Raph. Morghen sculp Romae / LUDUNT AONIAE PARNASSI IN COLE SORORES STAT MEDIUS LAURO, CYTHARÂQUE INSIGNIS APOLLO / A Giuseppe Nicola de Azara Minis.o Pleni.o di S. M. Carlo III. Ré di Spagna presso la S. di Pio VI. / Giov. Volpato, e Raf. Morghen D.D.D.

Sources / Literature