Kadriorg Art Museum reveals links between the world of Ovid’s Metamorphoses and European culture

The exhibition Metamorphoses: Power. Violence. Gender will open in the Kadriorg Art Museum on 10 October. The display consists of a selection of works based on Ovid’s well-known myths from the collections of Estonian, Czech, French and Swedish museums, as well as rare historical publications of Metamorphoses from libraries. The exhibition’s point of departure is the ceiling painting of the main hall of Kadriorg Palace, Diana and Actaeon, which depicts one of the widely known myths from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. The exhibition is curated by the art historian Kerttu Männiste and the cultural historian and literary scholar Sophie Turner.

Metamorphoses is a collection of more than 250 Greek and Roman myths written down by the Roman poet Ovid. The versions of the myths of Narcissus and Pygmalion or various heroes and gods that we know today have come down to us from this compilation. Ovid’s book has been called a Bible for Artists because legends describing the love affairs of gods and physical transformations have inspired artists from the Late Middle Ages to the present.

“For quite a long time, there were plans in the Kadriorg Art Museum to make an exhibition of artworks based on stories from what has been called a Bible for Artists, Metamorphoses, because one of those narratives, the myth of the goddess Diana and the hunter Actaeon, is depicted in the central ceiling painting of the main hall of Kadriorg Palace, which we introduce to all of our visitors,” said the curator of the exhibition, Kerttu Männiste.

“As its title suggests, Metamorphoses is a book about shapeshifting and transforming. Many of these stories are about lust, power relationships and violence. Transformation, blurred boundaries and states of transition are things that contemporary creators and audiences can also relate to: they reflect topical issues of power and its abuse, violence and self-empowerment, and physicality and (gender) identity,” added the curator Sophie Turner (Estonian Academy of Arts).

The exhibition Metamorphoses: Power. Violence. Gender is the first instance of cooperation between the Kadriorg Art Museum and the French heritage protection organisation Manufactures nationales – Sèvres & Mobilier national, which preserves furnishings and art collections of historical royal palaces. Three decorative tapestries from these collections will be on display at this exhibition, two of which were created in the legendary Gobelins Manufactory in the first half of the 18th century. Visitors can witness a version of the luxurious and impressive Spring: this tapestry was a direct model and source of inspiration for the décor programme of the main hall of Kadriorg Palace. Tapestries combining mythological storylines with a political message illustrate how myths were used in European courts as a means of legitimising and perpetuating power.

The display includes both original paintings, e.g. Philemon and Baucis Hosting Jupiter and Mercurius by the Flemish 17th-century master David Ryckaert, from the collection of the National Gallery Prague, and reproductive graphic art. The latter, along with illustrated and commented issues of Metamorphoses translated into different national languages, in which pictures and the text complement one another, facilitated the spread of the Ovidian pictorial tradition across Europe.

Although many of the most famous antique myths are known to us through Ovid’s Metamorphoses, only about ten of them were, until recently, available in Estonian, translated by Ain Kaalep and others and published in 1971 in the Anthology of Roman Literature. The book accompanying this exhibition contains new Estonian translations of six more myths, including the story of the goddess of the hunt, Diana, and the hunter Actaeon, depicted in the central ceiling painting of the main hall of Kadriorg Palace. The verse translations from Latin into Estonian were made by the classical philologist and the associate professor of classical philology of the University of Tartu, Maria-Kristiina Lotman.

The exhibition is accompanied by diverse public and educational programmes. An audience day dedicated to the exhibition will take place on Saturday, 10 October, featuring guided tours, the workshop In the Footsteps of Arachne and a public discussion at 3 p.m. with the translators Maria-Kristiina Lotman and Ivo Volt on how to translate antique texts.

The exhibition Metamorphoses: Power. Violence. Gender will be open in the Kadriorg Art Museum until 21 March 2027.

Loans:  Johhan Rosenberg, the Lund University Library, National Library of Latvia, Manufactures nationales – Sèvres & Mobilier national, National Gallery Prague, Music and Theatre Library of Sweden, National Library of Sweden and the University of Tartu Library

Curators: Kerttu Männiste and Sophie Turner
Educational programmes: Triin Raag
Exhibition design: Raivo Randoja (Heya Visual)
Graphic design: Tuuli Aule
Translations of Ovid’s myths from Latin into Estonian: Maria-Kristiina Lotman