Currently not on view
Ceres and Cyane (Ovid, Metamorphoses V, 483-522),
ca.1792–95
Jean-Guillaume Moitte, French, 1746–1810
x1976-297
Moitte would often flatter his patrons’ extensive knowledge of Greek and Roman literature by portraying less-known passages from classical mythology. In this scene from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, Moitte depicted Ceres riding in a chariot drawn by a dragon as she searches for her daughter Proserpina, who had been abducted by Pluto and carried to the underworld. The goddess happens upon Cyane, a water nymph present at the abduction, who offers Ceres a torn remnant of Proserpina’s garment as a clue to her daughter’s fate.
Information
Title
Ceres and Cyane (Ovid, Metamorphoses V, 483-522)
Dates
ca.1792–95
Maker
Medium
Pen and black ink, greenish grey and white opaque watercolor, black wash
Dimensions
27 x 64.5 cm (10 5/8 x 25 3/8 in.)
frame: 86.4 × 49 × 3.5 cm (34 × 19 5/16 × 1 3/8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Laura P. Hall Memorial Fund
Object Number
x1976-297
Culture
Type
Materials
Helene Munsterberger, London;
Purchase by the Princeton University Art Museum
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1976," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 36, no. 1 (1977): p. 28-40., p. 40
- "Sixteenth-to eighteenth-century French drawings from the permanent collection: a checklist of the exhibition," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 42, no. 1 (1983): p. 43-49., p. 49
- Barbara T. Ross, "Notes on selected French old master drawings from the permanent collection," Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 42, no. 1 (1983): p. 4-42., p. 5 (illus.)
- Gisela Gramaccini, Jean-Guillaume Moitte (1746-1810): Leben und Werk, (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1993). , cat. no. 208 (xerox on file); Vol. 1: p. 125; Vol. 2: p. 288, fig. 298; p. 88
- Richard J. Campbell and Victor Carlson, Visions of antiquity: neoclassical figure drawings, (Los Angeles, CA: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Minneapolis, MN; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1993)., p. 41, 42; fig. 19
