The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Diana's Return from the Chase (from Set of Ovid's Metamorphoses)

Diana's Return from the Chase (from Set of Ovid's Metamorphoses)

1704–1731
(France, Paris, est. 1662)
France, 18th century
tapestry weave
Overall: 322.5 x 326 cm (126 15/16 x 128 3/8 in.)
Gift of Mrs. Matthias Plum 1956.325.1
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

During the French Revolution, Gobelins tapestries were sometimes disassembled to harvest the gold threads.

Description

This tapestry’s elaborate border emulates a gilt picture frame, a key characteristic of eighteenth-century Gobelins tapestries. It portrays the goddess Diana at two distinct moments, during and following the hunt, the first accompanied by three dogs, and the second reclining among five attendants. The figures are positioned in a lush landscape near a small stream. A putto, poised to place an arrow in his bow, hovers above Diana. Goddess of the hunt and associated with wild animals and the moon, Diana can be identified by the crescent worn above her forehead. The dead hares indicate a successful hunt.
  • ?–1956
    Mrs. Matthias Plum (Bertha Andrews Rainey Plum) [1909-1976], New York, NY, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art
    1956–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Malloy, Katherine R. “Three Eighteenth-Century Gobelins Tapestries.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 44, no. 2 (1957): 24–27. Mentioned: P. 25-27 www.jstor.org
    Standen, Edith A. “Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’: A Gobelins Tapestry Series.” Metropolitan Museum Journal 23 (1988): 149-191. Mentioned: P. 159, 162-163, 188; Reproduced: P. 164, fig. 19 www.jstor.org
  • {{cite web|title=Diana's Return from the Chase (from Set of Ovid's Metamorphoses)|url=false|author=Gobelins Manufactory|year=1704–1731|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1956.325.1