Skip to Content
Today Open today 11–8

Melpomene, plate seventeen from Apollo and the Muses

A work made of engraving on paper.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

Image actions

  • A work made of engraving on paper.

Date:

c. 1465

Artist:

Master of the E-Series Tarocchi
Italian, active c. 1465

About this artwork

The deck of fifty so-called Tarocchi are not tarots in the modern, fortune-telling sense, nor were they intended as playing cards. No cut-out impressions mounted for play are known, and they lack the suits and numbers of a regular deck. Instead, these delicately engraved didactic allegories are grouped in five numbered ranks describing the workings of the spheres of man, the muses, the liberal arts, the cosmos, and the heavens in order of increasing significance, and offer a didactic sequence to educate courtly youths or possibly university students, who could have used them as flashcards or a pamphlet.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Master of the E-Series Tarocchi

Title

Melpomene, plate seventeen from Apollo and the Muses

Place

Italy (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1460–1470

Medium

Engraving on paper

Dimensions

Plate: 17.9 × 10 cm (7 1/16 × 3 15/16 in.); Sheet: 18.3 × 10.4 cm (7 1/4 × 4 1/8 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.

Reference Number

1924.39.10

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/11463/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

Share

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Learn more

Image actions

Share