Weaving Myths: Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the Labours of Hercules Tapestries in the Renaissance

Laruelle, Anne-Sophie

doi:10.13138/2039-2362/3250

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Weaving Myths: Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the Labours of Hercules Tapestries in the Renaissance

Laruelle, Anne-Sophie

2023 • In Capitale Culturale (Il) : Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage, 2023, p. 225 - 247

Peer reviewed

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https://hdl.handle.net/2268/315437

DOI
10.13138/2039-2362/3250

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Keywords :

Conservation; Archeology (arts and humanities); History; Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous); Hercules; Tapestry

Abstract :

[en] The Labours of Hercules was a particularly prolific motif for tapestries in the Renaissance. The iconographic scheme of the Hercules series synthesized an enormous range of ancient and medieval philosophical and didactic erudition. This paper will examine an episode especially favoured in the sixteenth-century series: the fight between Hercules and the river-god Achelous (Metamorphoses, IX, 1-100). In scholarly literature, the scene has often been interpreted as the battle of Hercules against the Cretan bull. However, this episode was widely superseded by Hercules’ struggle against Achelous, due to the authority of Ovid’s texts. It will delve deeper in the matter by focusing on a curious detail: all tapestries depict Achelous with a human body and a bull’s head. This finding provides valuable new insights regarding this idiosyncratic and complex iconography.

Disciplines :

Art & art history

Author, co-author :

Laruelle, Anne-Sophie ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences historiques > Histoire de l'art et archéologie des temps modernes

Language :

English

Title :

Weaving Myths: Ovid’s Metamorphoses and the Labours of Hercules Tapestries in the Renaissance

Publication date :

2023

Journal title :

Capitale Culturale (Il) : Studies on the Value of Cultural Heritage

eISSN :

2039-2362

Publisher :

eum - Edizioni Universita di Macerata

Volume :

2023

Pages :

225 - 247

Peer reviewed :

Peer reviewed

Funding text :

This publication is part of the research project PID2022-141345NB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/ “FEDER Una manera de hacer Europa”

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since 27 March 2024

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