Atalanta and Meleager hunting the Calydonian Boar 1823-36
Woven silk and wool tapestry | 314.0 x 426.0 cm (whole object) | RCIN 64105
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Two panels from a series of Gobelins tapestries illustrating the Story of Meleager and Atalanta, after designs by Charles Le Brun, depicting the chase of the Calydonian Boar and Atlanta weeping over the death of Meleager. The Story of Meleager and Atalanta is based on the version that appears in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
Meleager was one of the Argonauts. His father, the King of Calydon, offended Artemis (Diana), who sent a huge boar to ravage his kingdom. In the first tapestry, Meleager and Atalanta pursue the Calydonian Boar with their hounds. In the second, the boar's head can be seen beneath the dying hero's feet. Meleager wished to give the spoils of the hunt to Atalanta, but his maternal uncles, who had also taken part, objected. Meleager had them put to death.
When Meleager was seven days old, his mother Althaea had heard the Fates foretell that he would live only so long as a log then burning on the hearth should remain unconsumed. Althaea had extinguished the log and kept in concealed in a chest. On hearing of her brothers' fate, however, she threw it back on the fire, thereby ending Meleager's life.
Queen Victoria noted the acquisition of these pieces in her diary of 5 September 1843: "...the King took us downstairs, where he gave me 2 splendid pieces of Gobelins, which had been thirty years in hand."Provenance
Presented to Queen Victoria by King Louis-Philippe at the Chateau d'Eu during the Queen's state visit in 1844
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Creator(s)
(tapestry manufacturer)(nationality)Acquirer(s)
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Medium and techniques
Woven silk and wool tapestry
Measurements
314.0 x 426.0 cm (whole object)
315.0 x 424.0 cm (whole object)
Alternative title(s)
The chase of the Calydonian Boar
Atlanta weeping over the death of Meleager
THe History of Meleager