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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1950.90
People
Unidentified Artist
Title
Achilles Among the Daughters of Lycomedes
Classification
Textile Arts
Work Type
tapestry
Date
c. 1500
Places
Creation Place: Europe, Belgium, Brussels
Culture
Flemish?
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/214636

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Textile fibers
Dimensions
261.6 x 264.2 cm (103 x 104 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Mrs. Solomon R. Guggenheim, New York, gift; to Fogg Art Museum, 1950

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mrs. Solomon R. Guggenheim
Accession Year
1950
Object Number
1950.90
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Description
This Brussels tapestry depicts Achilles Among the Daughters of Lycomedes. The scene shows Ulysses dressed as a street vendor selling jewelry and other wares to Lycomedes' daughters, including Achilles who is disguised as one of them. Achilles has turned his attention to a gauntlet and a small explosive, while the real women admire the jewelry. The closest textual source for this image is Boccaccio's Genealogia deorum (available in French translation from 1498 on), which recounts that Ulysses disguised himself as a merchant in order to identify Achilles who was disguised as one of Lycomedes' daughter (McGrath). One well-known, later example of the same subject is Rubens' tapestry from the Life of Achilles series, dated to the mid seventeenth-century (although in our example the tapestry belongs to a Life of Ulysses series). Despite the antique subject matter, the figures are attired in contemporary courtly costumes.

Publication History

  • Jean-Paul Asselberghs, Les tapisseries flamandes aux états-unis d'amérique, Musées royaux d'Art et d'Histoire (Brussels, 1974), p.14

Exhibition History

  • The World of the Middle Ages in the Thiebold Schilling Chronicle, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 10/07/1974 - 11/08/1974

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu