Evening Tour of the “Metamorphoses” Exhibition at Kadriorg Art Museum

An evening tour of the exhibition offers a special opportunity to explore it in a small group, in the quiet of the closed museum, accompanied by an art historian. The poem Metamorphoses by the ancient Roman poet Ovid is often called the “Bible of artists”. This collection of more than 250 myths is one of the most influential and extensive literary sources of mythological subjects. It is the source of the famous and often reinterpreted myths of Narcissus, Apollo and Daphne, Jupiter’s love affairs, and the many wondrous transformations that have inspired artists for centuries. Everyone is familiar to some extent with Ovid’s work, which has played a major role in shaping our modern understanding of ancient mythology.

The exhibition takes as its starting point the decorative scheme of the grand hall of Kadriorg Palace, in particular the central ceiling painting “Diana and Actaeon”, depicting one of the best-known myths from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. During the tour, we will consider interpretations of this and other myths in the broader context of 18th-century court culture and European cultural history. We will also explore how European monarchs and various social groups in the 17th and 18th centuries used Ovid’s work and the poet’s biography for ideological purposes.

Historical books and artworks loaned to the exhibition from the collections of Manufactures nationales – Sèvres & Mobilier national (France), the National Gallery Prague, the University of Tartu Library, the National Library of Latvia and other collections demonstrate how varied a source of inspiration myths were for secular artworks of many genres, moods and moral messages.

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

Alexandra Murre is an art historian and curator, and Director of Kadriorg Art Museum. She has worked at the Art Museum of Estonia since 2000 and has curated a number of exhibitions at Kadriorg Art Museum and the Mikkel Museum. Her research interests include 18th- and 19th-century Russian art, the history of Kadriorg, and the history of art collecting in Estonia. Alexandra Murre actively promotes a wide range of art-historical topics through various museum programmes and publications.

Tickets: €22 / €20

Advance tickets are available on the Fienta platform. If places are still available, tickets can also be purchased at the Kadriorg Art Museum ticket office one hour before the event begins.