Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei (Budapest, 2008)

TERÉZ GERSZI: Frans Floris' Early Drawings in Budapest

making music except for that of two female figures depicted half from the back in the lower part of the composition. One of them is studying a sheet of music or writing', and the other one, who holds an outstretched leg of a muse, is writing something on a board. The decorative and detailed clothing of the two muses unusually allows a body part to be seen which is usually covered. The strange behaviour of the huddled together figures reminiscent of a bacchanália and their grotesque representation clearly indicate that the work is a persiflage of a theme from antiquity. Only a few such depictions have survived but there are other examples we know of: the monogramist H. E. active in the first half of the sixteenth century depicted the Desecrated Parnassus on his engraving (London British Museum, Department of Prints and Drawings) the erotic orgy in which there is a glaring persiflage of Raphael's Parnassus in the Vatican.

8 It has not been explained yet wdiy this unusual and strange depiction can be attributed to Floris. The tentative statement in the already mentioned 1971 catalogue, which only emphaFRANS FLORIS. APOLLO AND THE MUSES. BUDAPEST, MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS