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Aglauros’s Vision of the Bridal Chamber of Herse, from the Story of Mercury and Herse

designed ca. 1540, woven ca. 1570
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 520
This splendid tapestry depicts the seventh, and penultimate, episode in the story of the ill-fated love affair between Herse, a mortal princess from Athens, and Mercury, god of trade, profit and travel. As recounted by the Roman writer Ovid in Book 2 of his narrative poem, The Metamorphoses, Mercury spied Herse participating, as a flower-garlanded virgin, in a festival honoring Minerva, and approached her father’s palace. Mercury petitioned her sister, Aglauros, to help him woo Herse. Stricken with jealousy, Aglauros envisioned in great detail how the union between Mercury and her sister might appear. It is that vision, rather than an actual bridal night, that we see represented here, in an exquisitely sumptuous re-edition of the tapestry series, heavy with precious thread, and woven with a virtuoso display of different surface effects. Also in The Met's collection is the final tapestry in the set (41.190.134).

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Aglauros’s Vision of the Bridal Chamber of Herse, from the Story of Mercury and Herse
  • Designer: Design attributed to Giovanni Battista Lodi da Cremona (Italian, active 1540–52)
  • Artist: After a print by Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio (Italian, Parma or Verona ca. 1500/1505–1565 Krakow (?)) : Marriage of Alexander & Roxana, after Raphael
  • Designer: Border design attributed to Giovanni Francesco Penni (Italian, Florence ca. 1496–after 1528 Naples) (from the set of the "Acts of the Apostles")
  • Workshop director: Weaving workshop directed by Willem de Pannemaker (Flemish, active Brussels, 1535–78, died 1581)
  • Date: designed ca. 1540, woven ca. 1570
  • Culture: Netherlandish, Brussels
  • Medium: Wool, silk and precious metal-wrapped threads (20-22 warps per inch, 8-9 warps per cm.)
  • Dimensions: weight confirmed, includes tube: 14 ft. 4 in. × 17 ft. 9 in., 173 lb. (436.9 × 541 cm, 78.5 kg)
  • Classification: Textiles-Tapestries
  • Credit Line: Bequest of George Blumenthal, 1941
  • Object Number: 41.190.135
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Mercury Changes Aglauros to Stone, from the Story of Mercury and Herse, Giovanni Battista Lodi da Cremona Italian, Wool, silk and precious metal-wrapped threads (20-22 warps per inch, 8-9 warps per cm.), Netherlandish, Brussels
Mercury Changes Aglauros to Stone, from the Story of Mercury and Herse
Multiple artists/makers
designed ca. 1540, woven ca. 1570
The Triumph of Fame, Wool, silk (6-7 warp threads per cm.), Netherlandish, probably Brussels
The Triumph of Fame
Netherlandish, probably Brussels
ca. 1502–4
Panel with grotesques, from a set of bed hangings, Cornelis Floris II Netherlandish, Silk, wool, silver and silver-gilt thread (20-22 warps per inch, 8-9 per cm.), Netherlandish, Brussels
Panel with grotesques, from a set of bed hangings
Cornelis Floris II
ca. 1550–60
Cup with cover, Hans van Amsterdam, Gilded silver, coconut shell, Dutch, 's-Hertogenbosch
Cup with cover
Hans van Amsterdam
1533/34
Ewer from Burghley House, Lincolnshire, Hard-paste porcelain, gilded silver, British, London mounts and Chinese porcelain
Ewer from Burghley House, Lincolnshire
British, London mounts and Chinese porcelain
Chinese porcelain 1573– ca. 1585, British mounts ca. 1585

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