Boreas and Orithyia from a set of scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses
Beauvais|René Antoine Houasse
designed ca. 1690, woven before 1730 · Wool, silk, metal thread (19-22 warps per inch, 7-9 per cm.) · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Maidens gathering flowers are plunged into disarray as, drapery billowing, winged Boreas, god of the North Wind, wraps Orithyia, a mortal princess of Athens, in his burly arms. Frustrated by her father’s refusal to approve his marriage request, Boreas carries her off regardless, in a sharp diagonal thrust out of the picture plane, towards his home in Thrace. This tapestry was made as part of a popular series, eventually numbering eight or nine episodes, illustrating scenes from the Roman poet Ovid’s Metamorphoses, a lengthy, magical poem loosely narrating a Classical history of the world.
- Artist
- Beauvais|René Antoine Houasse
- Date
- designed ca. 1690, woven before 1730
- Medium
- Wool, silk, metal thread (19-22 warps per inch, 7-9 per cm.)
- Culture
- French, Beauvais
- Department
- European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
- Credit line
- Gift of Frances L. Kellogg, 1977
