Pygmalion from Stories from Ovid
c. 1675
Medium
Wool and silk, slit and double interlocking tapestry weave Warp: Count: 6 warps per cm; wool: S-ply of three Z-spun elements; diameters: 0.7–1.0 mm Weft: Count: varies from 16 to 32 wefts per cm; wool: pairs of S-ply of two Z-spun elements; diameters: 0.6–1.2 mm; silk: pairs of S-ply of two Z-twisted elements; diameters: 0.7–1.0 mm
Dimensions
500.3 × 210.8 cm (196 7/8 × 83 in.)
Classification
weaving - tapestry
Department
Textiles
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
79537
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Typical example of late- seventeenth-century tapestries depicting mythological scenes in wooded or parklike settings. From about 1660, these immensely popular light-hearted and slightly erotic mythological sets, usually depicting stories from Ovid's famous Metamorphoses were the lifeblood of the majority of Flemish and French workshops. The limited color range of these fashionable series and the absence of intricate large-sclae figures made them less costyly to execute than history sets. Antwerp...