Evening Special Tour: “Metamorphoses. Power. Violence. Gender” at Kadrioru Art Museum

The evening exhibition tour offers a special opportunity to explore the exhibition in a small group, in the quiet of the closed museum, guided by an art historian.

The work Metamorphoses by the ancient Roman poet Ovid has been called the artists’ Bible. This collection of more than 250 myths is one of the most influential and extensive literary sources for mythological subjects. It is the source of familiar, oft-retold myths about Narcissus, Apollo and Daphne, Jupiter’s love affairs, and various physical transformations that have inspired artists for centuries. In this sense, almost everyone knows something of Ovid’s work, since it has greatly shaped our general understanding of classical mythology.

The exhibition takes as its starting point the ceiling painting Diana and Actaeon in the main hall of Kadriorg Palace, which depicts one of the myths from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. During the tour, we will place this and several other interpretations of myths in the broader context of 18th-century court culture and European cultural history, and explore how European rulers and interest groups of the 17th and 18th centuries used Ovid’s work and the poet’s biography for ideological purposes.

Historical books and artworks on loan to the exhibition from the collections of the French heritage organisation Manufactures nationales – Sèvres & Mobilier national, the National Gallery Prague, the University of Tartu Library, the National Library of Latvia and other lenders show the diverse material myths provided for creating secular artworks with differing moral and emotional tones.

The exhibition is accompanied by a book which, in addition to abundant illustrations, includes six translations of Ovid’s myths published in Estonian for the first time. The verse translations of the myths from Latin into Estonian were made by classical philologist Maria-Kristiina Lotman, Associate Professor of Classical Philology at the University of Tartu.

Kerttu Männiste is an art historian and curator at Kadriorg Art Museum. She has curated exhibitions on a wide range of themes at Kadriorg Art Museum, Mikkel Museum and Adamson-Eric Museum, including “On Stage and on Canvas” and “A Dance of Colours: Finnish Modernist Art”. Alongside curating, she considers communication with the public very important: introducing art history to different audiences through tours and educational programmes, and inspiring a love of and enthusiasm for art.

Tickets: €22/20. Advance tickets are available through Fienta. If places are available, tickets can also be purchased at the Kadriorg Art Museum ticket office one hour before the event begins.