Clio

This work was inspired by Velazquez painting ‘Female Figure’ (c.1635) in tattered ancient garments. Her apparent reference to a tablature or surface is often associated with Clio, the muse of history. Acknowledging the theorized identity of the muse, she is flanked here with classical imagery with an under-painted figure-ground alluding to a historical or mythical scene in the vein of the drawings of Palma Giovane.