Apollo, plate 20 from Apollo and the Muses (c. 1465): Artwork and History

Apollo, plate 20 from Apollo and the Muses (c. 1465) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Master of the E-Series Tarocchi Italian, active c. 1465.

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

These engravings, part of a “deck” of 50 images that resemble playing cards, were probably created in Ferrara. The enigmatic series is organized into five thematic groups: Conditions of Man, Apollo and the Muses, Arts and Sciences, Geniuses and Virtues, and Firmaments of the Universe. Not intended as tarot or playing cards, these tarocchi were most likely used as a didactic iconographical source or model book. Apollo, though crowned and seated on a celestial sphere, is shown in an unusual manner, alongside swans and what could be an ornamented mirror.

Object facts

• Title: Apollo, plate 20 from Apollo and the Muses
• Date: c. 1465
• Artist attribution: Master of the E-Series Tarocchi Italian, active c. 1465
• Place of origin: Italy
• Medium: Engraving on paper
• Dimensions: Plate: 17.7 × 10 cm (7 × 3 15/16 in.); Sheet: 18.4 × 10.6 cm (7 1/4 × 4 3/16 in.)
• Type: Print
• Department: Prints and Drawings
• Reference number: 1924.39.36

Collection credit

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

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.