Musca depicta

This article is about painted representations of flies in artworks. For the fly species formerly called Musca picta, see Delphinia picta.
Petrus Christus's Portrait of a Carthusian has a musca depicta perched on the trompe-l'œil frame.

Musca depicta ("painted fly" in Latin; plural: muscae depictae) is a depiction of a fly as a conspicuous element of various paintings.[1] The feature was widespread in 15th- and 16th-century European paintings, and its presence has been subject to various interpretations by art historians.[1][2]

  1. ^ a b Hogue, James N. (2009). "Cultural Entomology". In Resh, Vincent H.; Cardé, Ring T. (eds.). Encyclopedia of Insects (2nd ed.). Academic Press. p. 242. ISBN 978-0-08-092090-0. Retrieved October 17, 2021.
  2. ^ Hall, James (2018). "Fly". Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art (Rev. ed.). Routledge. p. 130. ISBN 9780429962509. Retrieved October 17, 2021.