Apollo and the Muses on Mount Helicon Print after Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée)

Apollo and the Muses on Mount Helicon
Claude Lorrain (Claude Gellée) 
Original found at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 
 
Born in the Lorraine region of France, Claude settled early in Italy and spent most of his life painting the countryside around Rome, with its many associations to the ancient world. This painting, done when he was eighty-two years old, represents Apollo, god of poetry and music, surrounded by the nine Muses, goddesses of the creative arts. At the upper right is the winged horse Pegasus, who has kicked a rock to release the spring that is the source of artistic inspiration. Although most of Claude's paintings included biblical or classical themes, their true subject was the light, atmosphere, and poetic mood of the natural world.