The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 17, 2025
Flora and Zephyrus (from Set of Ovid's Metamorphoses)
1704–1731
manufacturer
(France, Paris, est. 1662)
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.- ?–1956Mrs. Matthias Plum (Bertha Andrews Rainey Plum) [1909-1976], New York, NY, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art1956–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.orgStanden, 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=17 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1956.325.2