The Judgment of Midas by Hendrick Goltzius

Apollo stands centrally with a radiant halo playing a viola da braccio, while the Muses and other deities observe the performance. To the right, the goat-legged Pan holds his pipes, while King Midas is shown with donkey ears as a sign of his foolish preference for Pan's rustic music over Apollo's divine harmony. The composition is filled with the hyper-muscular, twisting figures characteristic of the Haarlem Mannerist style.

This myth was interpreted by Renaissance Neoplatonists as an allegory for the superiority of divine, intellectual harmony over base, earthly passions. It reflects the esoteric concern with the refinement of the soul's senses to perceive the 'Music of the Spheres' rather than the cacophony of the material world.

Inscriptions(Latin)

Thymbrius fidibus cannas equare palustres Arras semicaper Tmolo sub iudice certat. Stant circum Satyri pedibus cita turba bisulcis, Cumque stupore sui Panos certamina cernunt. Stat radiante coma, plectroque instructus eburno Latone soboles; circum sacra numina Musae. Capripedi palmam adscribit Berecynthius amens, Tmoliis Phaebe tibi, cui Pindi cura, cui Hemi. Insulsis delira placent, selecta refellunt, Atque ultra crepidam sutor male taxat Apollom. Magna tonat stolide cui sunt praecordia mentis, Iustitiam Bani strepitas, et ineptule Meni. Vera verecunda est ars, et taciturna, relegans Clangentes lituos tumidi blateronibus oris. Franco Estius. SPECTABILI IVXTA ac Doctissimo Florentio à Schoterbosch L.L. Doctori Domino et amico suo observando Picturae et Musices candide admiratori ab itinere Constantinopolitano in patriam reduci Hendricus Goltzius invent. et sculpt. D.D. Anno 1590.

Translation

Thymbrius vies to equal the marsh reeds with his strings;
The half-goat vies with Tmolus as judge for the prize.
The Satyrs stand around, a crowd swift-footed and cloven,
And behold with astonishment the contests of Pan.
There stands the offspring of Latona, with radiant hair,
Equipped with an ivory plectrum; around him are the sacred Muses.
The mad Berecynthian awards the palm to the goat-footed one,
To you, Phoebe, belongs Tmolus, and to you, whose care is Pindus and Haemus.
The tasteless are pleased by the delirious, they refute the select,
And the cobbler ill-judges Apollo beyond the sandal.
He thunders loudly whose breast is devoid of sense,
You clamor for the justice of Ban, foolish Meni.
True art is modest and silent, casting aside
The blaring trumpets of those with swollen mouths.
Franco Estius.

To the respectable and most learned
Florentius à Schoterbosch, Doctor of Laws,
His esteemed lord and friend,
A candid admirer of painting and music,
Returning to his homeland from a journey to Constantinople,
Hendricus Goltzius, inventor and engraver, dedicates and presents this.
In the year 1590.

The Judgment of Midas

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