Concert of Apollo and the Muses on Mount Helicon

For humanists like Maerten van Heemskerck, the ancient god of music Apollo and his nine companions embodied the ennobling power of music and its sister arts. Yet, while High Renaissance artists like Raphael envisioned their mythic gatherings as a tightly ordered frieze of stately figures, the Mannerist artist Heemskerck interpreted it as a playful park scene brimming with anecdotal details. Even Apollo, the supposed maestro, is pushed to the middle distance, far behind the tiny attendant pumping the organ.

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