Pygmalion from Stories from Ovid

Textiles

c. 1675

After a design probably by Daniel Janssens (1636–1682)
Woven at the Wauters workshop
Antwerp

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 and Oudenarde tapissiers in particular focused on this genre.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Textiles

Artists: Wauters Workshop (Manufacturer) , Daniel Janssens
Title: Pygmalion from Stories from Ovid
Places: Flanders (Object made in:), Antwerp (Object made in:)
Date: Made 1665-1685
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.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Arthur Cutten
Reference Number: 1953.303
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/79537/manifest.json

Wendy Hefford, “The Chicago Pygmalion and the ‘English Metamorphisis.’” In The Art Institute of Chicago Centennial Lectures, Museum Studies 10 (Chicago: Contemporary Books, Inc., 1983), 92-117, fig. 9 (ill.).
Dora Heinz, Europäische Tapisseriekunst des 17. und 18. Jahrhunderts: Die Geschichte ihrer Produktionsstätten und ihrer künstlerischen Zielsetzungen (Böhlau Verlag, 1995), 77-78, fig. 24.
Koenraad Brosens, ed., Christa C. Mayer Thurman, gen. ed., European Tapestries in the Art Institute of Chicago, exh. cat., [exhibition: “The Divine Art: Four Centuries of European Tapestries in the Art Institute of Chicago”] (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2008) 199-206, cat. 27 (ill.).

Art Institute of Chicago, Tapestries from the Permanent Collection, June 30-Sept. 30, 1979.
Art Institute of Chicago, Regenstein Hall, The Divine Art: Four Centuries of European Tapestry, Nov. 1, 2008–Jan. 4, 2009.

Mrs. Arthur Cutten, Chicago, by Mar. 2, 1983 [incoming receipt RX865, Mar. 2, 1953; copy in curatorial object file]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1953.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

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