The Parnassus

This article is about the fresco by Raphael. For other uses, seeParnassus (disambiguation).

The Parnassus (Italian:Il Parnaso, referring toMount Parnassus) is afresco painting by theItalian High Renaissance artistRaphael in theRaphael Rooms ("Stanze di Raffaello"), in thePalace of the Vatican in Rome, painted at the commission ofPope Julius II.

The Parnassus

Artist	Raphael
Year	1509–1511
Type	Fresco
Dimensions	670 cm (260 in) wide
Location	Apostolic Palace,Vatican Museums,Vatican City

It was probably the second wall of theStanza della Segnatura to be painted between 1509 and 1511,^[1] afterLa Disputa and beforeThe School of Athens, which occupy other walls of the room.^[2]

Overview

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The whole room shows the four areas ofhuman knowledge: philosophy, religion, poetry and law, withThe Parnassus representing poetry. The fresco shows themythological Mount Parnassus whereApollo dwells; he is in the centre playing an instrument (a contemporarylira da braccio rather than a classicallyre), surrounded by thenine muses, ninepoets from antiquity, and nine contemporary poets. Apollo, along withCalliope, themuse of epic poetry, inspired poets.^[3]^[4]

Raphael used the face of Laocoön from the classical sculptureLaocoön and His Sons, excavated in 1506 and also in the Vatican for hisHomer (in dark blue robe to the left of centre), expressing blindness rather than pain.^[5] Two of the female figures in the fresco have been said to be reminiscent ofMichelangelo'sCreation of Adam,Euterpe andSappho, who is named on a scroll she holds.^[6] Sappho is the only female poet shown, presumably identified so that she is not confused with a muse; she is a late addition who does not appear in the print byMarcantonio Raimondi that records a drawing for the fresco.

The window below the frescoParnassus frames the view ofMons Vaticanus, believed to be sacred toApollo.Humanists, such asBiondo,Vegio, and Albertini, refer to the ancient-sungod of theVatican.^[4]

Gallery

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Statius,Thalia,Clio,Euterpe andCalliope
Erato,Ludovico Ariosto andGiovanni Boccaccio
Dante Alighieri,Homer andVirgil
Sappho
Terpsichore
Apollo

Notes

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^Marcia B. Hall (ed.),The Cambridge Companion to Raphael, Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 195.
^Jones and Penny, p. 74: "The execution of theSchool of Athens ... probably followed that of theParnassus."
^Paoletti, J; Radke, G (2005) [1997].Art in Renaissance Italy. London: Laurence King Publishing. p. 409.ISBN 1-85669-439-9.
^^a ^bStinger, C (1998) [1985 (hardback)].The Renaissance in Rome. Bloomington, IN: Indiana Bloomington Press. p. 199.ISBN 0-253-33491-8.
^Roger Jones andNicholas Penny,Raphael, p. 74, Yale, 1983,ISBN 0300030614
^Joannides, P (1983).The Drawings of Raphael: With a Complete Catalogue. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press. p. 20.ISBN 0-520-05087-8.