Thursday, March 9, 2017

M for Minerva

Sébastien Leclerc
Initial M with Minerva
ca. 1696
etching, letterpress
British Museum

Sébastien Leclerc
Initial M with Minerva
ca. 1675
etching, letterpress
British Museum

MINERVA - The Italian goddess of intelligence, meditation and inventiveness, queen of all accomplishments and arts, especially  of  spinning and weaving, as practiced by women. She was also the patron-goddess of fullers, dyers, cobblers, carpenters, musicians, sculptors, painters, physicians, actors, poets, schoolmasters, and especially of schoolchildren. Her oldest and most important sanctuaries were at Rome on the hills of the town; on the Capitol, where she occupied a chamber on the right in the great temple common to her with Jupiter and Juno; on the Aventine, where the official meeting place of poets and actors was situated, and on the Caelian. Her chief festival was the Quinquatrus. In the course of time the Greek conception gained more ground; Minerva was identified with Pallas Athena. This certainly happened with regard to Athena considered as the bestower of victory and booty, when Pompey erected a temple to her from the booty won in his Eastern campaigns. And Augustus must have regarded her as Athena the Counselor when he added to his Curia Iulia a vestibule dedicated to Minerva. The Roman Minerva was represented in art in the same manner as the Greek goddess.

 from The Dictionary of Classical Mythology, Religion, Literature, and Art by Oskar Seyffert, first published in German in 1882, first published in English in 1891

Peter Paul Rubens
Head of Minerva (derived from a coin or gem)
ca. 1600-1608
drawing
British Museum

Anonymous Italian Gem-cutter
Intaglio - Minerva
18th century
sard
British Museum

James Tassie or William Tassie
Intaglio - Minerva
ca. 1765-1860
glass imitating amethyst
British Museum

Étienne Delaune
Minerva
1569
engraving
British Museum

Philips Galle after Johannes Stradanus
Juno, Minerva, Venus awaiting Judgment of Paris
ca. 1580-90
engraving
British Museum

Raffaellino da Reggio
Hercules, Minerva and Mars
ca. 1545-78
drawing (study for façade mural)
British Museum

Claude Lorrain
Scene on Parnassus with Minerva visiting the Muses
1676
drawing
British Museum

Louis-Jacques Durameau
Minerva inscribing a shield supported by Fame 
ca. 1733-96
drawing
British Museum

Marcantonio after Raphael
Minerva in niche
ca. 1511-1520
engraving (from sarcophagus relief)
British Museum

Marcantonio
Reconciliation beteween Minerva and Cupid
ca. 1517-20
engraving
British Museum

Antoine Rivalz
Personification of Painting
attended by Spirits of the Arts
and conversing with Minerva

ca. 1695-99
engraving
British Museum

Abraham Bosse
Minerva guides the hand of the artist
1642
etching
British Museum