About this artwork

This is Claude's largest and most ambitious landscape. Its classical theme is immediately suggested by the prominent reclining river god and the temple on the wooded slopes of Mount Helicon. Here framed by trees, the god Apollo plays his lyre for the nine muses. To the right four poets approach while another kneels before the Temple of Immortality to receive a laurel crown. Pegasus the winged horse, just visible below, presides over the spring water of the Hippocrene Fount a source for poets' inspiration. Equally inspiring, is the beautiful landscape extending to the horizon. Claude painted the work for Cardinal Pamphili.

Updated before 2020

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Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée)

Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée)