Muse of Painting

Italian (Florentine School), 1575–1648 
1606–1625
Oil on canvas
Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 

Muse of Painting was previously attributed to two other Florentine painters: Lorenzo Lippi and Giovanni Battista Lupicini. Recently, however, it was credited to Francesco Lupicini based on stylistic similarities to some of the artist’s other works. Lupicini was a native Florentine, and he worked there until 1632, when he moved to Spain for the remainder of his life. The subject in Muse of Painting was inspired by Italian iconographer Cesare Ripa’s book Iconologia. Though the female figure in the painting seems related to the nine Muses of Greek mythology, none of the muses were specifically related to painting. The beautiful figure in Lupicini’s work seems to not only represent the craft of painting, but the artistic temperament. Her gaze is severe and her dark hair is wild, suggesting that we as viewers have interrupted her in the middle of her work mixing colors on a palette. Her laurel crown again ties into the idea of muses, but her modern dress and sense of action makes her seem very much like a real person.