the new emotional blackmailer's handbook

I've recently "finished" a clumsily rendered and frivolous little painting ... my dumbed-down version of nine muses ... mine are riding on nine unicorns ... no classical or mythical authenticity there then ... and accompanied by nine magpies, the Pierides ...

The painting lay neglected for over a year until i remembered the story of the Pierides and added the nine magpies ... now i like to think that all are heading to Las Vegas for a lucrative re-match at Caesar's Palace ... can we assume that writer's block and artist's block are the same ?

During the gradual course of becoming interested in the Muses, i compiled a scrapbook in the form of a Word Document ( MY NINE MUSES ) that filled about a hundred pages, mostly with images ... i'm going to transfer some of them into my blog, along with some links and descriptions that seemed helpful to me at the time ... condensing this may take some time ...

the first stage of the project was trying to identify the nine names and then to see if there was a standard list of attributes, a consistent iconography ... fat chance ! after thousands of years, how could there be ?

But first ... a provisional list of their names and their special talents ...

Calliope

Epic Poetry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calliope

Clio

History

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clio

Euterpe

Flutes & Music

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euterpe

Thalia

Comedy

& Pastoral Poetry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalia_(Muse)

Melpomene

Tragedy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melpomene

Terpsichore

Dance

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terpsichore

Erato

Love Poetry

& Lyric Poetry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erato

Polyhymnia

Sacred Poetry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyhymnia

Urania

Astronomy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urania

and then

CALLIOPE, MUSE OF EPIC POETRY, she’s holding a book

Goddess of Eloquence, Mother of Orpheus

https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/MousaKalliope.html

Calliope by Simon Vouet, 1634 … wearing red and yellow

https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.46160.html

Calliope with books, Italy, late 17^th Century

https://www.christies.com/lot/lot-5097661/?intObjectID=5097661

Calliope Mourning Homer

https://harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/230368?position=230368

CLIO … MUSE OF HISTORY

she holds a book, too ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clio

https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/MousaKleio.html

Clio by Simon Vouet, Karlsruhe Kunsthalle

Clio by Charles Meynier

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2003.6.5#

Clio by Francois Boucher, 1742

https://histoirebnf.hypotheses.org/3809

Corot ...

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/435978?ft=Parnassus&offset=80&rpp=40&pos=86

Vermeer ...The Art of Painting ...

some people suggest that Vermeer's young model is posing as CLIO ...

... but there are other interpretations ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Painting

EUTERPE … Muse of Flutes and Music

https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/MousaEuterpe.html

Euterpe by Simon Vouet

https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/the-courts-of-europe-n09107/lot.113.html

Euterpe, by Goltzius

http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.438362

Euterpe, Albertina Museum ... can’t find it described on their website

Sculptor Joseph Klieber, part of a set of Apollo and the Nine Muses

Carved in Sandstone with a mock-marble finish

THALIA

https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/MousaThaleia.html

Thalia, probably Italian, Anglesey Abbey

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/thalia-the-muse-of-comedy-and-pastoral-poetry-170258

Emma Hamilton as Thalia

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/817160

Thalia, Meissen, c.1745

https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5440169

hoppner, dorothea jordan as the comic muse

MELPOMENE

https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/MousaMelpomene.html

Melpomene, Wall plaque found in Petra

https://universes.art/en/art-destinations/jordan/amman/museums/jordan-museum/nabataean-hall/melpomene

Melpomene Muse of Tragedy, Elisabeta Sirani, before 1625

Melpomene, Thorvaldsen, 1836

TERPSICHORE

https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/MousaTerpsikhore.html

TERPSICHORE, Muse of Lyric Poetry and Dancing

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1968.212

Francesco Bartolozzi

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/381819?ft=Terpsichore&offset=0&rpp=40&pos=2

Terpsichore, Anglesey Abbey

ERATO

https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/MousaErato.html

Erato, Clock by Claude Galle, France, late 18^th Century

https://www.proantic.com/en/display.php?id=641106

Erato, Charles Meynier, about 1800

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2003.6.2

Erato, Lord Leighton

https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2021/master-paintings-sculpture-part-i/erato

The Muse of Poetry, Sir Edward Poynter

POLYHYMNIA

https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/MousaPolyhymnia.html

Polyhymnia by Simon Vouet, around 1645

https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010059598

Polyhymnia

https://www.rct.uk/collection/search#/1/collection/41046/polyhymnia-daughter-of-zeus

Polyhymnia, Meissen, late 19^th Century,

https://www.freemansauction.com/auction/lot/603-impressive-group-of-meissen-porcelain-figures-of-muses/?lot=428110&sd=1

URANIA

https://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/MousaOurania.html

Urania, amongst others

Bernard Picart, 1730

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1956-0725-83

Urania,

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/196531?searchField=All&sortBy=Relevance&ft=Urania&offset=0&rpp=20&pos=13

Urania, a volume of poems, 1950, with a cover by the exquisite woodcarver Joan Hassall

Urania, Raphael mosaic, Vatican

THE MUSES IN CROWD SCENES

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/823355001

https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010066788

HISTORY: Presumably the painting seen by [André] Félibien in Rome in 1647. Possibly, anonymous sale, Banqueting House, Whitehall, London, 1684. Spanish Royal Collection by 1746.

"The Parnassus is a free variant of Raphael's fresco in the Vatican [directly below], with a not very skillful attempt to fill the gap – due in Raphael's composition to the window – by the insertion of the nymph of the Castalian spring, an awkward figure reminiscent of the School of Fontainebleau in its proportions. In certain respects Poussin has followed Marcantonio's engraving [also below] more closely than the painting. The putti, for instance, which occur in the engraving and in Poussin's painting, are not to be seen in the fresco. Erwin Panofsky believes that [Poussin's] painting is a tribute to [Poussin's early patron, the then-famous poet Giovanni Battista] Marino, and nothing would be more likely than that Poussin should have painted such a subject soon after the poet's death in 1625."