Parnassus or Apollo and the Muses (detail)

The picture shows the central figure of the painting. Apollo Musagetes, the leader of the Muses fills his role as a “ kitharodos” or a siger accompanied by a kithara. He is playing a finely arched, six-stringed lyre with a very small sound box, just like the one imagined since the early Renaissance to resemble the instrument of the classical gods.