In 1716, the Viscounty of the Oudburg in Ghent commissioned a series of tapestries devoted to the Exaltation of the Gods. The Viscounty was a fief of the County of Flanders, located within the walls of the Counts’ Castle. Barely a year later, the tapestries were hung in the Castellany. The Oudburg arms appears in the middle of each tapestry. Oudburg College was closed down during the period of French revolutionary occupation and the Viscounty building was demolished. The series ended up in the Museum of Fine Art in 1904, having had several homes in the interim. The second tapestry shows The Exaltation of Apollo. The Sun God sits at the edge of a wood on Parnassus – the mountain dedicated to him. He strums his favourite instrument, the lyre, while surrounded by six muses who play music and sing. He wears a laurel crown as the creator of divine music. Three vaguely represented figures can be made out in the midst of an Arcadian landscape. They probably represent the remaining three of the nine muses of Antiquity. The muses were a symbol of wisdom, eloquence, even temper and the ability to sing the praises of gods and humans. The Exaltation of Apollo is a clear ode to civilisation.
