The Metropolitan Museum of Art - Special Exhibitions


	Current Exhibitions
	Upcoming Exhibitions
	Past Exhibitions

Printing Instructions

Tapestry in the Renaissance: Art and Magnificence

Back to main page for this exhibition

Back to images from this exhibition

Select image to enlarge then zoom.

Perseus Liberating Andromeda
From a five-piece Fables of Ovid (the Poesia)
Design and cartoons attributed to Pieter Coecke van Aelst or an artist in his workshop, ca. 1545–50
Woven in the workshop of Willem de Pannemaker, Brussels, before 1556
Wool, silk, and silver- and gilt-metal-wrapped thread; 11 ft. 8 1/8 in. x 13 ft. 3 7/8 in. (356 x 406 cm)
Mark of Pannemaker workshop (bottom right selvage)
Patrimonio Nacional, Palacio Real de la Granja de San Ildefonso

Description

Detail Views

Description Appearing in several editions from the late fifteenth through the early sixteenth century, Ovid's Metamorphoses inspired many Renaissance artists. In 1550 Titian began a group of lyrical paintings, le poesie, for Prince Philip of Spain based on Ovid's text. Philip's accession to the throne in 1556 sparked an intense period of collecting both fine art and tapestries; in that initial year he acquired the Poesia tapestries, a Northern European counterpart to Titian's work. This tapestry depicts Perseus's rescue of Andromeda, from book 4 of the Metamorphoses. At the right, Andromeda, represented as an ideal nude, is chained to a rock in punishment for her mother's offense against Neptune, god of the sea. From the left, Perseus, also an elegant nude, swoops in on winged sandals, brandishing a sword to kill a sea monster. A crowd of spectators dressed in classical costume gathers on the shore. The landscape, with its precise details, may depict the Bay of Jaffa in Palestine.

Photograph Credits