Ovid: “Love, Myths and Other stories” - I
"Love, myths and other stories" is the exhibition celebrating the bimillennian of Ovidio (Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale) and dedicated to the life, work and legacy of Ovid.
Words and verses: this is what remains of Ovid. Even his face is known to us only through evocations in Mediaeval manuscripts and Renaissance books that provide us with imaginary likenesses: the poet appears on the frontispieces either standing or seated at his desk, represented according to the canons of a man of letters of the period, often wearing a laurel wreath.
More is known about Ovid's personality which can be construed from his vast literary output, and has come down to us in manuscripts, giving him the immortality that he himself prophesied at the end of Metamorphoses. The poet tackled all the main styles in literature, grappling with and mastering very different genres, modernizing both the content and the form.
The romantic elegy features in his poetry from the early years: in the “Amores” the poet writes of earthly love for young girls, matrons, slaves and freedwomen; in the “Heroides” he explores the feelings of the mythic heroines betrayed and abandoned by deceitful or simply inattentive lovers; he adopts yet another register for “Ars amatoria”, where passion and desire become the subject of an educational guide. He then went on to tackle civic and epic poetry, creating the poem that would make him famous for generations, the “Metamorphoses”. Ovid occupies a special place among the great poets of the Latin world for the size and variety of his literary production and his role in handing down the great tradition of classical mythology. Thanks to him the enthralling tales of the gods, heroes, youths and nymphs have been imprinted in our collective memory.
Through his poetry, the word that overcomes the oblivion of time, Ovid achieved the immortality he so desired.
Me vatem celebrate, viri, mihi dicite laudes,
cantetur toto nomen in orbe meum
[ars 2, 739~740]
Celebrate me the prophet, O ye men:
sing my praises, let my name be sung
in all the world
Me ev'ry youth shall praise, extol my name,
And o'er the globe diffuse my lasting fame.
Ovid was an acute observer of contemporary Rome. He wrote of made—up women, ardent lovers, assignations and the sybaritic pleasures of banquets and theatrical performance. He frequented the intellectual circles and the most exclusive salons in the city where his instructive playful approach was particularly appreciated, although it made him unpopular with the emperor, who was engaged in a campaign of moral reform. For a crime, the precise nature of which remains unknown, Augustus exiled the sophisticated interpreter of Greek and Roman myth to Tomis, present-day Costanta in Romania. His later years were marked by the pain of exile and the vain hope that his sentence would be reduced.
Giovan Battista Benvenuti, called l’Ortolano
Ca. 1505-1510
Oil on panel
Exhibition: “Ovidio: Loves, Myths & Other Stories”
Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome
Ovid: “Love, Myths and Other stories” - I
"Love, myths and other stories" is the exhibition celebrating the bimillennian of Ovidio (Rome, Scuderie del Quirinale) and dedicated to the life, work and legacy of Ovid.
Words and verses: this is what remains of Ovid. Even his face is known to us only through evocations in Mediaeval manuscripts and Renaissance books that provide us with imaginary likenesses: the poet appears on the frontispieces either standing or seated at his desk, represented according to the canons of a man of letters of the period, often wearing a laurel wreath.
More is known about Ovid's personality which can be construed from his vast literary output, and has come down to us in manuscripts, giving him the immortality that he himself prophesied at the end of Metamorphoses. The poet tackled all the main styles in literature, grappling with and mastering very different genres, modernizing both the content and the form.
The romantic elegy features in his poetry from the early years: in the “Amores” the poet writes of earthly love for young girls, matrons, slaves and freedwomen; in the “Heroides” he explores the feelings of the mythic heroines betrayed and abandoned by deceitful or simply inattentive lovers; he adopts yet another register for “Ars amatoria”, where passion and desire become the subject of an educational guide. He then went on to tackle civic and epic poetry, creating the poem that would make him famous for generations, the “Metamorphoses”. Ovid occupies a special place among the great poets of the Latin world for the size and variety of his literary production and his role in handing down the great tradition of classical mythology. Thanks to him the enthralling tales of the gods, heroes, youths and nymphs have been imprinted in our collective memory.
Through his poetry, the word that overcomes the oblivion of time, Ovid achieved the immortality he so desired.
Me vatem celebrate, viri, mihi dicite laudes,
cantetur toto nomen in orbe meum
[ars 2, 739~740]
Celebrate me the prophet, O ye men:
sing my praises, let my name be sung
in all the world
Me ev'ry youth shall praise, extol my name,
And o'er the globe diffuse my lasting fame.
Ovid was an acute observer of contemporary Rome. He wrote of made—up women, ardent lovers, assignations and the sybaritic pleasures of banquets and theatrical performance. He frequented the intellectual circles and the most exclusive salons in the city where his instructive playful approach was particularly appreciated, although it made him unpopular with the emperor, who was engaged in a campaign of moral reform. For a crime, the precise nature of which remains unknown, Augustus exiled the sophisticated interpreter of Greek and Roman myth to Tomis, present-day Costanta in Romania. His later years were marked by the pain of exile and the vain hope that his sentence would be reduced.
Giovan Battista Benvenuti, called l’Ortolano
Ca. 1505-1510
Oil on panel
Exhibition: “Ovidio: Loves, Myths & Other Stories”
Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome