The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 16, 2024

Flora and Zephyrus (from Set of Ovid's Metamorphoses)

Flora and Zephyrus (from Set of Ovid's Metamorphoses)

1704–1731
(France, Paris, est. 1662)
France, 18th century
tapestry weave
Overall: 324.5 x 295 cm (127 3/4 x 116 1/8 in.)
Gift of Mrs. Matthias Plum 1956.325.2
Location: not on view

Did You Know?

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

Description

In an abundant garden of trees and flowers, the goddess Flora sits beneath a vase of luscious flowers as her husband, the west wind Zephyrus, carried by a white cloud, reaches out to crown her with a floral chaplet. In this tapestry, Zephyrus’s wings resemble those of a butterfly or moth rather than a bird. The ravishing landscape echoes Flora and Zephyrus as springtime divinities. The parrot in the foreground is a colorful intermediary between the viewer and the gods represented in this tapestry.
  • ?–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. 171-173, 188; Reproduced: P. 172, fig. 30 www.jstor.org
  • {{cite web|title=Flora and Zephyrus (from Set of Ovid's Metamorphoses)|url=false|author=Gobelins Manufactory|year=1704–1731|access-date=16 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1956.325.2