DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15099#0029
16
of this Muse and her mother Mnemosyne or memory. Though
the right leg is slightly thrown back, the straitness of the chiton
and the still, drooping folds of the pallium preclude the idea of
motion. That limb, and the right arm, slightly raised and crossed
upon the breast, have easily and naturally assumed the positions,
which indicate that the mind is occupied in meditation or re-
collection. No joyousness or merriment throws a momentary
flutter into the folds of the drapery; no fixed resolve of the
mind plants the foot firm and flat upon the ground, giving
strength and solidity to the position ; but the body has dropped
into the easy and graceful attitude characteristic of a mind in
" musing meditation rapt," when thought alone is busy, and the
body in repose.
Polyhymnia is the peculiar muse of mythological and myste-
rious tradition, and the envelopement of the hands in the full
and ample folds of the pallium is supposed to symbolise the
obscurit}7 in which such subjects are veiled. The figure in the
Museum very much resembles one preserved in the Vatican,1
from which it appears that the face was raised and the head slightly
thrown back,
Her looks commercing with the skies
Her rapt soul sitting in her eyes.
Her mind absorbed in high or holy things, intent upon pene-
trating the darkness in which the deeds and thoughts of remote
ages are involved, and engaged in moulding into substantial and
defined forms the slight and visionary traces of bygone days.
And, as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the Muse's thought
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.5
1 Museo Pio Clementino, vol. i. tav. xxiv. See also tav. xxviii. which repre-
sents the goddess Mnemosyne with the name inscribed upon the pedestal, shewing
the close correspondence between the two subjects, and the similarity in their treat-
ment by ancient artists. 8 Mids. Night's Dream, Act. V. Sc. I.
of this Muse and her mother Mnemosyne or memory. Though
the right leg is slightly thrown back, the straitness of the chiton
and the still, drooping folds of the pallium preclude the idea of
motion. That limb, and the right arm, slightly raised and crossed
upon the breast, have easily and naturally assumed the positions,
which indicate that the mind is occupied in meditation or re-
collection. No joyousness or merriment throws a momentary
flutter into the folds of the drapery; no fixed resolve of the
mind plants the foot firm and flat upon the ground, giving
strength and solidity to the position ; but the body has dropped
into the easy and graceful attitude characteristic of a mind in
" musing meditation rapt," when thought alone is busy, and the
body in repose.
Polyhymnia is the peculiar muse of mythological and myste-
rious tradition, and the envelopement of the hands in the full
and ample folds of the pallium is supposed to symbolise the
obscurit}7 in which such subjects are veiled. The figure in the
Museum very much resembles one preserved in the Vatican,1
from which it appears that the face was raised and the head slightly
thrown back,
Her looks commercing with the skies
Her rapt soul sitting in her eyes.
Her mind absorbed in high or holy things, intent upon pene-
trating the darkness in which the deeds and thoughts of remote
ages are involved, and engaged in moulding into substantial and
defined forms the slight and visionary traces of bygone days.
And, as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the Muse's thought
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.5
1 Museo Pio Clementino, vol. i. tav. xxiv. See also tav. xxviii. which repre-
sents the goddess Mnemosyne with the name inscribed upon the pedestal, shewing
the close correspondence between the two subjects, and the similarity in their treat-
ment by ancient artists. 8 Mids. Night's Dream, Act. V. Sc. I.