# Helicon or Minerva's Visit to the Muses [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MOMPER, Joos de]() - Date: 1601-1650 - Technique: Oil on panel, 140 x 199 cm ## Commentary This painting is the result of a co-operation of three artists, Joos de Momper \(landscape\), Hendrik van Balen \(figures\) and Jan 'Velvet' Brueghel \(flowers\). It is an attractive work with a harmonious landscape. The foreground and background merge gradually with one another, forbidding rocks give way to a grand valley, in which the mythological scene forms a balanced component. Ovid describes \(Met. 5:250-268\) how Minerva visited the Muses on Mt Helicon, their home, to listen to their song and story and to see the sacred spring, the Hippocrene, which flowed from a rock after it had been struck by the hoof of the winged horse, Pegasus. The scene is a wooded mountain-side where the company of Muses are playing their instruments. Pegasus is seen in the background leaping from a high rock from which water gushes. The association of Minerva and the Muses was in line with the tradition that made her patroness of the arts. ## Related artworks - [Christ Healing the Blind Man]() - [Extensive Mountainous Landscape]() - [Flemish Market and Washing Place]() - [Landscape]() - [Landscape]() - [Landscape with a Mountain Pass]() - [Landscape with Grotto]() - [Landscape with the Temptation of Christ \(detail\)]() - [Landscape with the Temptation of Christ \(detail\)]() - [Landscape with the Temptation of Christ]() - [Large Mountain Landscape \(detail\)]() - [Large Mountain Landscape]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()