Assembly of the muses and poets on Mount Parnassus

Mimicking a carved bas relief, this engraving depicts an assembly of muses and poets honoured by the Greek gods on Mount Parnassus, by the prominent Rome-based printmaker Cherubino Alberti (1552-1615). It is made after drawings by Polidoro da Caravaggio (1499-c. 1543) and is one of three prints that form a frieze (the other two are not in the collection). It is in the so-called King George IV album of Old Master prints, acquired by the Dominion Museum, forerunner of Te Papa, in 1910.

Polidoro was a pupil of Raphael, and is not to be confused with the better known and later Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art           March 2017