The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 24, 2024
Poetry (from the Tarocchi, series C: Liberal Arts, #27)
before 1467
Location: not on view
Description
This engraving is part of the group “C” named Liberal Arts. Conceptually, the liberal arts descended from classical antiquity, and were divided into the Trivium (Grammar, Rhetoric, and Dialectic or Logic) and the Quadrivium (Music, Geometry, Arithmetic, and Astronomy). In the Tarocchi set the total number was risen to ten, with the addition of the three disciplines (Poetry, Philosophy, and Theology). The liberal arts denoted knowledge or skills considered necessary to participate in a free society. By the late Middle Ages, they began to be represented in the visual arts as womanlike allegories.Here, Poesia (Poetry) is personified as as a young female figure crowned with a laurel wreath. She is seated in front of Mount Parnassus, next to a fountain. This latter exemplifies the Greek Castalian font, believed by poets to be a source of inspiration. While playing the flute—a symbol of eloquence—Poetry irrigates the earth with inspirational waters taken from the Castalian spring.
- Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 36 no. 02, February 1996 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 2 archive.org
- Gods and Heroes: Ancient Legends in Renaissance Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-December 31, 2017).Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 6-September 9, 1965).Prints 1400-1800. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (December 18, 1956-January 20, 1957); The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (February 1-March 3, 1957); Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN (November 1-December 1, 1957).The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).
- {{cite web|title=Poetry (from the Tarocchi, series C: Liberal Arts, #27)|url=false|author=Master of the E-Series Tarocchi|year=before 1467|access-date=24 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1924.432.27