Art Institute of Chicago

The Offering of the Boar's Head from The Story of Meleager and Atalanta

After a design by Charles Le Brun (1619–1690)LinkedCulture matchlcp-ccff07c13600

Date: 1673/86
Medium: Wool and silk; slit, dovetailed, and double interlocking tapestry weave Warp: Count: 9 warps per cm; wool: S-ply of three Z-spun elements; diameters: 0.6–0.8 mm Weft: Count: varies from 32 to 36 wefts per cm; wool: S-ply of two Z-spun elements; diameters: 0.3–0.9 mm; silk: pairs of S-ply of two Z-twisted elements; diameters: 0.2–0.6 mm
Culture: Brussels
Department: Textiles
Institution: Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID: 40724

From the Art Institute of Chicago record

The Story of Meleager and Atalanta is based on the version of the legend that appears in Ovid’s Metamorphoses . Meleager was the son of Oeneus, the king of Calydon. One day the goddess Artemis, enraged by Oeneus’s failure to honor her appropriately, sent a wild boar to ravage Calydon’s fields. Meleager organized a hunting party to kill the animal. Atalanta, the daughter of the king of Arcadia, was the only woman in the group. As soon as Meleager laid eyes on her, he fell in love. Atalanta wounded the boar with an arrow and Meleager killed it with a spear. The prince honored the princess for drawing first blood, declaring her queen of the hunt and offering her the boar’s head. Meleager’s uncles were jealous, and tried to steal the trophy. Blinded by love and rage, Meleager killed them. The tapestry shows Meleager returning the boar’s head to Atalanta.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Gift of Mrs. Maurice L. Rothschild
Provenance: Lehmann Bernheimer (1841-1918), Bernheimer-Haus, Munich, in 1917; sold to Maurice L. Rothschild (1864-1941), Chicago, by 1917; by descent to his wife, Hulda Rothschild (1878-1980, born Hulda Bloom; also Mrs. Maurice Rothschild), Chicago; given to the Art Institute, 1941.