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Title

Fame and Erato, Muse of Love Poetry

Artist

Sebastiano Conca

Physical Description

Two women accompanied by a pair of putti appear seated in the foreground of this painting. On the left sits a winged woman crowned with a laurel wreath and wearing a long white robe and a vivid ocher-colored mantle. She leans on a globe while cradling a large book in her right arm to which she points with her left hand. In her right hand she holds a compass. A putto peeks from beneath her mantle, and a viol is visible beneath the globe. The other woman sits on a cloud. She wears a golden crown and a richly colored blue mantle. She grasps a lyre with her left hand and leans toward the woman seated next to her, gesturing in the direction of the book with her right hand. A second putto stands near her left shoulder holding a gold circlet in his left hand. The background is filled with glimpses of neoclassical architecture, including fluted columns and a facade with a row of Ionic columns supporting an entablature.

Artist Life Dates

1680 - 1764

Century

18th century

Object Creation Date

circa 1725

Accession Number

1987/1.159

Medium and Support

oil on canvas

relevance

rank 28.18422

Primary Keywords

allegory

books

compasses (drawing instruments)

globes (cartographic spheres)

lyres

oil paintings

putti