The Fall of Pyteneus

Louis Chéron, c. 1695

Oil on plaster, ceiling of the Second State Room

7.2 x 9.53 m

The subject, from Ovid's, Metamorphoses, book v, lines 270-96, asexplained to Minerva on Mount Helicon, shows the nine Muses flyingaway from the tyrant Pyreneus. From left to right they representUrania (astronomy) with a globe and crown of stars; Terpsichore witha lyre (dancing and song), Clio crowned with laurel (history), Thaliawith her mask (comedy), Calliope with a trumpet (epic poetry),Melpomene (tragedy) with dagger and book flanked by Erato (lovepoetry) and Euterpe (lyric poetry) and Polyhymnia (heroic hymns) withflute and garlands of flowers. The ceiling has suffered from laterrepainting which gives the faces a curiously anachronistic feeling.There are no recorded surviving preparatory sketches by Chéronfor this ceiling.

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