Full title | Marsyas and Olympus |
---|---|
Artist | Annibale Carracci |
Artist dates | 1560 - 1609 |
Series | Panels for a Musical Instrument |
Date made | 1597-1600 |
Medium and support | Oil on wood |
Dimensions | 34.4 x 84.2 cm |
Acquisition credit | Bought, 1824 |
Inventory number | NG94 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
A naked golden-haired youth sits on a rock, playing the panpipes; another set of pipes hangs from the tree behind him. An older bearded man sits nearby on the ground, his panpipes also hanging from a branch. This is perhaps the satyr Marsyas; the youth may be Olympus, described in classical sources as a composer, follower and occasional favourite of Marsyas. The musical theme is especially appropriate as this long panel is part of the case of a musical instrument, probably some kind of harpsichord.
The figures are based on antiquities in the collection of the powerful Farnese family. The original instrument was perhaps owned by Fulvio Orsini, librarian and curator to successive Farnese cardinals from 1558 until his death in 1600.
A naked golden-haired youth sits on a rock, playing the panpipes; another set of pipes hangs from the tree behind him. An older bearded man sits on the ground nearby, his panpipes also hanging from a branch. This is perhaps the satyr Marsyas, who challenged the god Apollo to a musical contest and was skinned alive when he lost (as in The Flaying of Marsyas). The youth is probably Olympus, described in classical sources as a composer, follower and occasional favourite of Marsyas.
The musical theme is especially appropriate, as this panel is part of the case of some kind of harpsichord, possibly the lid of the keyboard. Silenus gathering Grapes and Putto gathering Grapes may have come from the same instrument, or possibly a pair of instruments. Stylistically they belong to Annibale Carracci’s Roman years, and are probably contemporaneous with his most intensive period of activity in the Farnese Gallery, from 1597 to 1600.
Both figures in this painting are based on antiquities in the collection of the Farnese family. The original instrument was perhaps owned by Fulvio Orsini, librarian and curator to successive Farnese cardinals from 1558 until his death in 1600. His will speaks of a pair of musical instruments, which he had had finely decorated and which he left to one of his executors, Orazio Lancellotti. Since the first certain reference to these panels records them as part of a ‘Cambalo’ (harpsichord) in the Palazzo Lancellotti during the seventeenth century, there is good reason to think that they are connected with Orsini.
Annibale was a prolific draughtsman, and worked out the composition for these figures in preparatory drawings. Marsyas is based on a drawing for a seated satyr (now in the Louvre, Paris) whose pose derives directly from two antique gems then in the Farnese collection. There is a preparatory drawing for Olympus (Royal Collection, Windsor) based on an antique sculpture of Pan teaching Olympus, also then belonging to the Farnese family. There is also a related pen drawing in Frankfurt for the whole composition, with a seated Cupid in place of Olympus.
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Panels for a Musical Instrument
These three panels were originally part of an early keyboard instrument, or possibly a pair of instruments, and show scenes of music-making and drinking. Silenus gathering Grapes and Young Satyr gathering Grapes are probably from the inside of the lid, and would only have been seen when the instrument was open. Marsyas and Olympus may have also belonged to the lid of the keyboard or to some part of the instrument’s case.
They were painted by Annibale Carracci in the late 1590s, perhaps for Fulvio Orsini, classical scholar and librarian/curator to the powerful Farnese family in Rome. The designs for some of the figures are based on classical objects owned by the Farnese.
These three panels were originally part of an early keyboard instrument, or possibly a pair of instruments, and show scenes of music-making and drinking. Silenus gathering Grapes and Young Satyr gathering Grapes are probably from the inside of the lid, and would only have been seen when the instrument was open. Marsyas and Olympus may have also belonged to the lid of the keyboard or to some part of the instrument’s case.
They were almost certainly painted by Annibale Carracci during the late 1590s, while he was working for the powerful Farnese family in Rome. The designs for some of the figures are based on antiquities in the Farnese collection. The instruments probably once belonged to Fulvio Orsini, classical scholar and owner of the famous Vatican Virgil, one of only three illustrated manuscripts to survive from the classical world. Orsini spent over 40 years in the service of the Farnese, combining the functions of librarian and curator, and living in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome.
On 21 January 1600, worried by his declining health, Orsini made his will along with a scrupulous inventory of his collection. Two fine musical instruments were listed in this, one of which he described as being commonly called a ‘Graviorganum’, the other a ‘vero Cymbalum’. The former is presumably a claviorganum, a harpsichord combined with an organ and fitted with strings as well as pipes. Hardly any of these instruments survive, but they were fairly widespread in the sixteenth century, and some early examples had curved lids. They were often brightly painted, sometimes with musical themes drawn from classical literature: the Theewes Claviorgan, dated 1579, has Orpheus playing to animals on the inside of the lid (Victoria and Albert Museum, London).
The long panel of Marsyas and Olympus might have been the keyboard lid of the claviorganum – technical examination has revealed three small hooks embedded in the bottom of the panel, which were probably inserted as some form of hinge – or possibly part of the case of the ‘vero Cymbalum’.
Orsini left both his instruments to one of his executors, Orazio Lancellotti. The first certain reference to Silenus gathering Grapes and Young Satyr gathering Grapes records them as part of an instrument in the Palazzo Lancellotti in Rome during the seventeenth century, so there is good reason to think that this was the instrument bequeathed to him by Orsini.



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