Weaving Myths: Homer and the Trojan War's Tapestries in the Renaissance

The Trojan War was a particularly prolific motif for European tapestries in the Renaissance. Until the beginning of the sixteenth century, the complex narrative of the medium was based not on Homer, but on more recent retellings. According to our current research, the mid-century appears as a turning point for the iconographic schemes. This paper will especially focus on a Brussels set of the "Story of Ulysses", largely unknown today, for which numerous pieces have survived. Our findings provide valuable new insights regarding this idiosyncratic iconography, and more broadly on the reception of Homer in Netherlandish art