Monserrate - Music Room
With flowers in her hair, Euterpe is the bringer of joy, muse of lyric poetry and music. At Monserrate she is placed right next to Cecelia, patron saint of music, and to her left is Terpsichore, muse of song and dance. Her attributes are musical instruments, here the oboe, horn and trumpet. The chaplet in her hair is curious since it contains as well as flowers, bunches of grapes and ears of corn, traditionally used to identify the seasons, or abundance, Flora or Ceres, here perhaps they signify abundant joy.
Classical portraits always show the double flute.
Euterpe from Ovid's Metamorphoses 1563 edition
by the Neurenberg woodcutter and engraver Virgil Solis.
