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Boreas and Orithyia from a set of scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses

Designer René Antoine Houasse French
Manufactory Beauvais
designed ca. 1690, woven before 1730
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 551
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.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Boreas and Orithyia from a set of scenes from Ovid's Metamorphoses
  • Designer: René Antoine Houasse (French, Paris 1645–1710 Paris)
  • Manufactory: Beauvais
  • Date: designed ca. 1690, woven before 1730
  • Culture: French, Beauvais
  • Medium: Wool, silk, metal thread (19-22 warps per inch, 7-9 per cm.)
  • Dimensions: 11 ft. 8 in. × 14 ft. 11 in. (355.6 × 454.7 cm) (as measured by Textile Conservation in 1984)
  • Classification: Textiles-Tapestries
  • Credit Line: Gift of Frances L. Kellogg, 1977
  • Object Number: 1977.435
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

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