# Allegory of Music or Erato [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [LIPPI, Filippino]() - Date: 1451-1500 - Technique: Tempera on panel. 61 x 51 cm ## Commentary Allegory of Music or Erato c. 1500 Tempera on panel. 61 x 51 cm Staatliche Museen, Berlin This idyllic, playful composition, which has been considered the allegory of music for a long time, intimates complicated relationships. Nothing seems to indicate, however, that it belongs to one of a series of paintings symbolizing the seven liberal arts. We have no certain data on its original purpose. The painting probably shows the Muse Erato leading a swan by a golden leash. The swan, an attribute of Apollo, may be associated with Musica as well; its symbolic role is based on the fact that it miraculously sang before its death; thus the concept of the swan song. There is a lyre of a peculiar form in the painting. Such a fantastic instrument more than likely would have been unsuitable for playing. Its frame is a head of a stag, and the strings are stretched across the cross-bands mounted on the antlers. The painter even placed a piece of bone next to it. The stag has been used by painters to represent Hearing because of its keen ears; thus it may be connected with the concept of music. It is proposed that in the form of a winged putto even Zephyrus may have a role in the depiction of music, since the swans sing only when the mild western wind blows, while the musicians require a certain breath of personal glory to inspire them to play. The putti who play with the swan, on the other hand, may belong to a third female figure, Leda. Jupiter, in the form of a swan, seduced her, and their love bore two sets of twins, although in paintings usually only two children are depicted. This detail reveals that Leonardo da Vinci's painting - lost and only known from copies - influenced Lippi. ## Related artworks - [Abraham]() - [Adam]() - [Adoration of the Child \(detail\)]() - [Adoration of the Child]() - [Adoration of the Child]() - [Adoration of the Magi \(detail\)]() - [Adoration of the Magi \(detail\)]() - [Adoration of the Magi]() - [Adoration of the Magi]() - [Allegory]() - [Altar wall of the Carafa Chapel]() - [Annunciation \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()