Oudry's Interpretation of Ovid

Christie's
Jan 31, 2013 7:13PM
For anyone who loves the intersection of art and literature (and who doesn’t?), the vibrant subject of Jean-Baptiste Oudry’s work comes from Ovid. A horse surprised by a swan in a landscape: a scene from Ovid's Metamorphoses tells the story of the eldest and wisest centaur,  Chiron’s daughter transformed into a mare. She was scared by Cygnus, the swan. To the right is the tomb of Phaeton (he died taking his father Zeus’ chariot to the sun), and his three mourning sisters (called Heliades) turned into amber-teared poplar trees. Perhaps Chiron is Oudry’s subject because the names means “skilled with hands?”
Christie's