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The Challenge of the Pierides, from Ovid's Metamorphosis (Book V: 294-678)

Karel van Mander I Netherlandish
16th–17th century
Not on view
Like his Italian predecessor Giorgio Vasari, Karel van Mander I is best known as an author, in his case of the first collection of biographies of Netherlandish artists, but he was also a highly skilled and wonderfully imaginative draftsman. This drawing depicts a story told in Ovid's Metamorphoses (5.294-678) in which the nine Pierides, daughters of King Pierus of Emathia, are turned into magpies after losing the singing contest to which they challenged the nine Muses. The scene is set at one of the sacred sources on Mount Helicon or Mount Parnassus. Probably following the example of a print after Rosso Fiorentino, van Mander seems to have cast Apollo as the final judge. This drawing and two similar sheets by van Mander at the Uffizi, Florence, may have been meant as the continuation of an elaborate but aborted series of print illustrations of the Metamorphoses by van Mander's great contemporary and friend Hendrick Goltzius. Goltzius in turn must have been incited to work on the series by van Mander's interest in Ovid's book, on which he published a commentary in 1604.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Challenge of the Pierides, from Ovid's Metamorphosis (Book V: 294-678)
  • Artist: Karel van Mander I (Netherlandish, Meulebeke 1548–1606 Amsterdam)
  • Date: 16th–17th century
  • Medium: Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash; framing lines in pen and brown ink
  • Dimensions: sheet: 6 9/16 x 8 15/16 in. (16.7 x 22.7 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, 2005 Benefit Fund and Dodge Fund, 2007
  • Object Number: 2007.406
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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The Servants of Absalom killing Amnon (2 Samuel 13, 28-29); verso: Sketch of a seated woman, Karel van Mander I Netherlandish, Pen and brown ink, brown wash; verso: black chalk. Two framing lines in pen and brown ink
The Servants of Absalom killing Amnon (2 Samuel 13, 28-29); verso: Sketch of a seated woman
Karel van Mander I
Anonymous, Dutch, 17th century
late 16th–early 17th century
The Liberation of Oriane from a set of Amadis of Gaul, Karel van Mander I Netherlandish, Wool and silk (8-9 warps per cm), Dutch, Delft
The Liberation of Oriane from a set of Amadis of Gaul
Karel van Mander I
Frans Spiering
ca. 1590–95
A Proverb: Wealth and Poverty, Karel van Mander I Netherlandish, Pen and brown ink, gray wash, heightened with white, on beige paper.
A Proverb: Wealth and Poverty
Karel van Mander I
mid-16th–early 17th century
Samuel Annointing David (recto); Sketch of two figures (verso), Karel van Mander I Netherlandish, Pen and brown ink, brush and brown and gray wash; pasted down (recto); pen and brown ink, incised and rubbed with black chalk (verso)
Samuel Annointing David (recto); Sketch of two figures (verso)
Karel van Mander I
ca. 1591
A Mill with a Fortified Bridge, a Rowing Boat in the Foreground, Roelandt Savery Flemish, Pen and brown ink; framing lines in brown ink
A Mill with a Fortified Bridge, a Rowing Boat in the Foreground
Roelandt Savery
1596–1639

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