The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 19, 2025

Apollo and the Serpent Python (from Set of Ovid's Metamorphoses)

1700–1730
manufacturer

Gobelins Manufactory

(France, Paris, est. 1662)

after Nicolas Bertin

(French, 1668–1736)
France, 18th century
tapestry weave
Overall: 328 x 393 cm (129 1/8 x 154 3/4 in.)
Gift of Mrs. Matthias Plum 1956.325.3
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

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

Description

Apollo’s dynamic posture with his right arm pulled back and his left holding a bow indicates that he has just shot the arrow piercing the snarling serpent’s throat and body. Apollo’s triumph over powerful Python, the fearsome serpent offspring of Mother Earth or Gaia, boosted his ego tremendously, leading to his tragically unsuccessful pursuit of Daphne. The regally dressed hunter and his prey are seen alone in an environment teeming with natural life that includes a pumpkin patch. In the creation of this textile, the manufacturer used blue and yellow dye to create the color green which has since degraded, causing the pumpkins and their leaves to appear blue.
  • 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; Reproduced: P. 24 www.jstor.org
    Standen, Edith A. “Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’: A Gobelins Tapestry Series.” Metropolitan Museum Journal 23 (1988): 149–191. Mentioned: P. 162, 167, 188; Reproduced: P. 166, fig. 23 www.jstor.org
  • {{cite web|title=Apollo and the Serpent Python (from Set of Ovid's Metamorphoses)|url=false|author=Gobelins Manufactory, Nicolas Bertin|year=1700–1730|access-date=19 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1956.325.3