Euterpe, plate eighteen from Apollo and the Muses
Medium
Engraving on paper
Dimensions
Plate: 17.9 × 10 cm (7 1/16 × 3 15/16 in.); Sheet: 18.4 × 10.5 cm (7 1/4 × 4 3/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
11489
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
This engraving comes from a set of 50 cryptic tarocchi (tarot) cards that neither tell fortunes nor constitute a modern deck of cards. Instead, these didactic flashcards illustrate the abstract forces affecting mankind. The sequence Apollo and the Muses includes Euterpe, the Muse of music, shown here with her attribute, the double flute. She was later known as the Muse of lyric poetry. The Muses were typically invoked at the beginning of an epic poem, as in Canto II of Dante’s Inferno: “O Muses,...
About the Artist
Master of the E-Series Tarocchi · 1460–1475
The Master of the E-Series Tarocchi was an anonymous Italian engraver active in Ferrara around 1465, during the vibrant era of the Este court. His early life and training remain undocumented, but stylistic affinities link him to artists collaborating with Francesco del Cossa on the frescoes of Palazzo Schifanoia's Salone dei Mesi. Working in the Ferrarese tradition, he produced the pioneering E-se...