LIPPI, Filippino

Allegory of Music or Erato

1505-10
Tempera on panel. 61 x 51 cm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin-Dahlem

This idyllic, playful composition, which has been considered the allegory of music for a long time, intimates complicated relationships. Nothing seems to indicate, however, that it belongs to one of a series of paintings symbolizing the seven liberal arts. We have no certain data on its original purpose.

The painting probably shows the Muse Erato leading a swan by a golden leash. The swan, an attribute of Apollo, may be associated with Musica as well; its symbolic role is based on the fact that it miraculously sang before its death; thus the concept of the swan song.

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 puttti 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.

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