ABSTRACT
In 1511, Raphael was commissioned to decorate several rooms in the Vatican Palace. One of the frescoes he painted in the Stanze di Raffaello is Parnassus (Figure 0.1), in which a panoply of poets and scholars gathers
to pay tribute to Apollo, god of the arts. Seated in the center, Apollo plays his lute, accompanied by the nine Muses-his students, and the privileged mythical source of creative inspiration: Calliope, muse of epic poetry; Clio, history; Erato, lyric poetry; Euterpe, music; Melpomene, tragedy; Polyhymnia, sacred poetry and oratory; Thalia, comedy; Terpischore, dance; and Urania, astronomy. The recipients of their gifts also appear in Parnassus; ahead of his time, Raphael pointedly identifies the poet Sappho by name, distinguishing her from the female muses lest the viewer “con - demn women to being always the Muse and never the Maker” (Figure 0.2a; Parker, 1998, p. 767).
