The Muse Erato Writing Verses Inspired by Love
ca. 1797
Medium
Pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, heightened with white gouache, over black chalk on brown paper; squared in black chalk
Dimensions
18 1/8 x 13 1/16 in. (46 x 33.2 cm.)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harry G. Sperling Fund, 2001
Accession Number
2001.506
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the late 1790s, amid the cultural shifts following the French Revolution, French Charles Meynier crafted *The Muse Erato Writing Verses Inspired by Love This exquisite drawing depicts Erato, the classical Muse of lyric poetry and erotic love, often symbolized by her lyre and scrolls of verse. Meynier, a Neoclassical draftsman known for his elegant renderings of mythological figures, her in a moment of divine inspiration, blending antiquity's ideals with the era's renewed fascination with Greco-Roman themes. Executed around 1797, the work employs a sophisticated mixed-media technique: pen a...