Apollo holding pipes in his right hand accompanied by Pegasus

Angiolo Falconetto|Giulio Romano

1556–60 · Etching · Drawings and Prints

This etching is based on one of the two lunettes in the Loggia delle Muse in the Palazzo del Te in Mantua, painted around 1532 after designs by Giulio Romano. Here, the Hippocrene font, created by a blow from Pegasus' hoof, flows through large panpipes supported by Apollo. The laurel leaves that nourish the winged horse have also been fashioned into wreaths. In antiquity, the crown of laurel, a symbol of victory, was rarely the reward of poets. However, from the time of Petrarch's coronation on the Capitoline in Rome in 1341, the evergreen leaves were firmly linked to poetic fame.

Artist

Angiolo Falconetto|Giulio Romano

Date

1556–60

Medium

Etching

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949