Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Terpsichore.
The gallery
The Muse Terpsichore
Eustache Le Sueur, c. 1652-1655
Painted by the French Baroque master Eustache Le Sueur and now in the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Marseille (a version of his Louvre Muses cycle), this canvas isolates Terpsichore, the Muse of dance and choral song, from the nine-Muse cluster. She is shown seated and turning gracefully as if caught mid-movement, holding her traditional attribute the lyre, the instrument whose rhythm governs the dancing chorus over which she presides. The poised, dance-ready posture embodies her name, 'she who delights in dance'.
The Muse Terpsichore
Cosme Tura (with Angelo Maccagnino's workshop), c. 1450-1460
This Ferrarese panel, attributed to Cosme Tura and the workshop of Angelo Maccagnino and now in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan, comes from the celebrated studiolo of Belfiore, a cycle devoted to the nine Muses commissioned by the Este court. Terpsichore is enthroned in jewel-like Renaissance splendour as the patroness of dance and the dramatic chorus, attended by small putti who echo the festive, music-and-movement world she rules. The panel reflects the humanist revival of the Muses as embodiments of the liberal arts and inspired performance.
La Danse (Terpsichore)
Charles Meynier, 1801
A Neoclassical oil study by the French painter Charles Meynier, held in the Musee Magnin in Dijon, made in preparation for his larger composition of Apollo and the Muses. Terpsichore personifies the dance: rendered as a single radiant figure in the crisp linear manner of the Davidian school, she carries the lyre that marks her, the Muse who leads the choral dance under Apollo. Lifted out of the full Muse ensemble, the sketch presents her as one luminous star among the nine sisters of Helicon.