Marsia e Olimpo (1597-1600)

Carracci, Annibale (1560-1609)

Marsia e Olimpo (Marsyas and Olympus)
15971600
Oil on wood, 34.4 x 84.2 cm
National GalleryLondon

A naked golden-haired youth sits on a rock, playing the panpipes; another set of pipes hangs from the tree behind him. An older bearded man sits on the ground nearby, his panpipes also hanging from a branch. This is perhaps the satyr Marsyas, who challenged the god Apollo to a musical contest and was skinned alive when he lost (as in The Flaying of Marsyas). The youth is probably Olympus, described in classical sources as a composer, follower and occasional favourite of Marsyas.

The musical theme is especially appropriate, as this panel is part of the case of some kind of harpsichord, possibly the lid of the keyboard. Silenus gathering Grapes and Putto gathering Grapes may have come from the same instrument, or possibly a pair of instruments. Stylistically they belong to Annibale Carracci’s Roman years, and are probably contemporaneous with his most intensive period of activity in the Farnese Gallery, from 1597 to 1600.

Both figures in this painting are based on antiquities in the collection of the Farnese family. The original instrument was perhaps owned by Fulvio Orsini, librarian and curator to successive Farnese cardinals from 1558 until his death in 1600. His will speaks of a pair of musical instruments, which he had had finely decorated and which he left to one of his executors, Orazio Lancellotti. Since the first certain reference to these panels records them as part of a ‘Cambalo’ (harpsichord) in the Palazzo Lancellotti during the seventeenth century, there is good reason to think that they are connected with Orsini.

Annibale was a prolific draughtsman, and worked out the composition for these figures in preparatory drawings. Marsyas is based on a drawing for a seated satyr (now in the LouvreParis) whose pose derives directly from two antique gems then in the Farnese collection. There is a preparatory drawing for Olympus (Royal CollectionWindsor) based on an antique sculpture of Pan teaching Olympus, also then belonging to the Farnese family. There is also a related pen drawing in Frankfurt for the whole composition, with a seated Cupid in place of Olympus. (NG)

The other panels:

Carracci, Annibale (1560-1609)
Giovane Satiro che raccoglie l’uva
15971600
National GalleryLondon

 

 

Carracci, Annibale (1560-1609)
Sileno che raccoglie l’uva
15971600
National GalleryLondon

 

 

These three panels were originally part of an early keyboard instrument, or possibly a pair of instruments, and show scenes of music-making and drinking. Silenus gathering Grapes and Young Satyr gathering Grapes are probably from the inside of the lid, and would only have been seen when the instrument was open. Marsyas and Olympus may have also belonged to the lid of the keyboard or to some part of the instrument’s case.

They were painted by Annibale Carracci in the late 1590s, perhaps for Fulvio Orsini, classical scholar and librarian/curator to the powerful Farnese family in Rome. The designs for some of the figures are based on classical objects owned by the Farnese. (NG)