Apollo, God of Light, Eloquence, Poetry, and the Fine Arts with Urania, Muse of Astronomy (1798): Art, History and Details

Apollo, God of Light, Eloquence, Poetry, and the Fine Arts with Urania, Muse of Astronomy (1798) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Charles Meynier (French, 1768–1832).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

A recipient of the Grand Prix de Rome in 1789, Charles Meynier became a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1815 and painted large ceiling decorations at the Louvre and numerous pictures glorifying the Napoleonic legend. Erato, Muse of Lyrical Poetry belongs to a cycle of five paintings executed to fulfill a commission from businessman François Boyer-Fonfréde. They were intended to decorate his home in his native Toulouse and constitute a rare instance of a complete cycle of major paintings that remain intact rather than being split up and separately dispersed.

Object facts

• Title: Apollo, God of Light, Eloquence, Poetry, and the Fine Arts with Urania, Muse of Astronomy
• Date: 1798
• Creator attribution: Charles Meynier (French, 1768–1832)
• Culture: France, late 18th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Overall: 275 x 235 cm (108 1/4 x 92 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 2003.6.3

A detail from the museum

Urania leans on a starry orb, indicating her role as the muse of astronomy.

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Bellenger, Sylvain. "Magnificent Muses", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 44 no. 01, January 2004
• Bracken Sparks, Amy, "Disappearing Act." Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 48 no. 5 (May/June 2008): 10-12.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.