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The sole painting signed by Zucchi and associated with the marriage between Ferdinando I de’ Medici and Christine of Lorraine depicts the moment in Apuleius’ Fable of Psyche when the young woman embarks on a quest to uncover the identity of the mysterious lover who visits her without revealing himself. A drop of boiling [...]

The photograph of the Ovid exhibition (Ovid Austellung) held by the German art historian Aby Warburg (1866-1929) in the elliptical room of the Warburg-Haus library in Hamburg serves as a useful basis for discussion on the exhibition layout and its dialogue with the frescoes, images and events at Palazzo Te. Held between 29 January [...]

The so-called loves of Jupiter are the subject of a tapestry woven by the skilful Arachne, the central character at the heart of a myth concerning artistic creation: ‘Arachne was famous not because of class or lineage, but because she was an artist’, writes Ovid, who praises her remarkable craftsmanship and likens the art [...]

The painting by Rubens (1577-1640) on display here illustrates the Abduction of Proserpina, a myth concerning the violent actions of gods towards young women, as told by Ovid in the fifth book of Metamorphoses. The work is based on a relief from an ancient sarcophagus from the 2nd century A.D. that Rubens had seen [...]

Gigantomachia: la battaglia per la pace La Camera dei Giganti è considerata l’epicentro del palazzo, come riferisce Giorgio Vasari, uno dei suoi primi visitatori. Vi è rappresentata la battaglia terribile tra Giove e i Giganti, nati dal sangue del membro evirato di Urano (che poi darà vita a Venere), esseri arcaici che assediano l’Olimpo per vendicare [...]

La camera di Amore e Psiche, che accoglie con un banchetto l’imperatore Carlo V nel 1530, è impreziosita dalle decorazioni più complesse ed esteticamente ricercate di tutto il palazzo. La sua narrativa si articola in tre diversi momenti: il racconto preponderante dell’amore tra Psiche ed Eros, tratto dalle Metamorfosi di Apuleio; le [...]