Diana's Return from the Chase (from Set of Ovid's Metamorphoses)

1704–1731

Diana's Return from the Chase (from Set of Ovid's Metamorphoses), 1704–1731. Gobelins Manufactory (France, Paris, est. 1662). Tapestry weave; overall: 322.5 x 326 cm (126 15/16 x 128 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mrs. Matthias Plum 1956.325.1 This tapestry’s elaborate border emulates a gilt picture frame, a key characteristic of eighteenth-century Gobelins tapestries. It portrays the goddess Diana at two distinct moments, during and following the hunt, the first accompanied by three dogs, and the second reclining among five attendants. The figures are positioned in a lush landscape near a small stream. A putto, poised to place an arrow in his bow, hovers above Diana. Goddess of the hunt and associated with wild animals and the moon, Diana can be identified by the crescent worn above her forehead. The dead hares indicate a successful hunt. During the French Revolution, Gobelins tapestries were sometimes disassembled to harvest the gold threads.