Parnassus

Around 1497 Isabella d'Este, the young marchioness of Mantua, set out to fill a small private study with paintings on learned themes, and she wanted the most famous artists in Italy to make them. This one she got from her court painter, Mantegna. Venus and Mars stand together on a natural arch of rock, lovers in plain view. Off to the left, Venus's husband Vulcan shouts from the door of his forge while a small Cupid aims a blowpipe at him. Below them nine Muses dance in a ring to Apollo's music. The programme was worked out for her by a court poet, Paride da Ceresara, and Isabella was known to hold her painters to such instructions closely, down to the poses and the count of figures.