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Source 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.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
133715
label
Apollo and the Serpent Python (from Set of Ovid's Metamorphoses)
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
133715
contentType
object
title
Apollo and the Serpent Python (from Set of Ovid's Metamorphoses)
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.
date
1700–1730
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
creators
8592
25674
genreSpecific
Tapestry
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 328 x 393 cm (129 1/8 x 154 3/4 in.)
cul
France, 18th century
accession
1956.325.3
Source extras
tec
tapestry weave
tombstone
Apollo and the Serpent Python (from Set of Ovid's Metamorphoses), 1700–1730. Gobelins Manufactory (France, Paris, est. 1662), after Nicolas Bertin (French, 1668–1736). Tapestry weave; overall: 328 x 393 cm (129 1/8 x 154 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Matthias Plum, 1956.325.3
collection
Textiles
formerAccessionNumbers
1956.327
didYouKnow
During the French Revolution, Gobelins tapestries were sometimes disassembled to harvest the gold threads.
citations
citation
Malloy, Katherine R. “Three Eighteenth-Century Gobelins Tapestries.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art </em>44, no. 2 (1957): 24–27.
page_number
Mentioned: P. 25-27; Reproduced: P. 24
citation
Standen, Edith A. “Ovid’s ‘Metamorphoses’: A Gobelins Tapestry Series.” <em>Metropolitan Museum Journal</em> 23 (1988): 149–191.
page_number
Mentioned: P. 162, 167, 188; Reproduced: P. 166, fig. 23
creditline
Gift of Mrs. Matthias Plum
updatedAt
2026-05-29 06:51:50.721000
sourceId
133715
dept
Textiles
coll
Textiles
med
tapestry weave
creatorTags
male
gender unknown
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
5bb1e7d289f06835