SCULPTURE. 00000000000000ce ANTIQUE. 0000000001 000000 VATICAN

ERATO.

This Muse presided over amorous poetry and Ovid invokes no other in his poem on the Art of Love. It is she whom Apollonius of Rhodes calls to his aid, when, in his poem on the Expedition of the Argonauts, he wishes to relate the loves of Medea and Jason: it is also she who presides at nuptials. In this statue, the muse appears to be playing on the lyre, and to be beating time to some nuptial dance, the style of which must have been lively.

Her dress, composed of two tunics of unequal lengths, resembles the theatrical; the lyre, on which she is playing, is similar to that which the Apollo Cytharedes holds. The forearms are modern restorations the head is antique, but it belonged to a statue of Leda.

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This statue is in the Vatican Museum. It has been engraved by Pierre Fontan.

Height, 5 feet 6 inches.