Apollo and the Muses Wandering the galleries, our visitors enjoy
discovering the latest additions to the museum’s collections.
However, the discoveries often begin before newly acquired works
are ever installed. When a new work arrives, together our
curators and conservators begin extensive research as well as
cleaning and preservation work that deepen their collective
knowledge of an artist and a work of art. A recently completed
conservation project on a new acquisition unearthed incredible
findings and understandings. For five years Dean Yoder,
conservator of paintings, pored over a suite of five monumental
paintings the museum acquired in 2003. Painted by French artist
Charles Meynier in the last years of the 18th century, Apollo
and the Muses depict the classical Greek muses of epic and
lyrical poetry, eloquence, history, and astronomy. The worksnow
appear in their full glory in the Cutler gallery in the museum's
1916 building, featuring neo-classical paintings and sculpture.
The paintings were originall