"While the show features rarely lent works from masters such as Caravaggio, Bernini, Rodin and Brancusi, it marries them with modern artists who reinterpret the legends where male gods do all they can to get their wicked way and the powerless are punished. Transgender bodies, bare breasts and even a volcanic vulva appear in artworks inspired by Roman poet Ovid's masterpiece, Metamorphoses. Taco Dibbits, general director of the Rijksmuseum, believes the 200 myths and legends from this ancient epic poem still speak to our uncertain times."
"The show features plaster models by Auguste Rodin, with figures emerging from crude rock like the female sculpture created by Pygmalion in Ovid's legend, who comes to life. There is a room inspired by Leda and the Swan, with Zeus seducing the Spartan queen by taking the bird's form. It also includes a rare loan from the Louvre. Gian Lorenzo Bernini's 17th-century carving of Sleeping Hermaphroditus"
The Rijksmuseum presents artworks inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses that pair rarely lent old-master works with contemporary pieces. Juul Kraijer appears as a snake-headed Medusa on large screens, while other works depict transgender bodies, bare breasts and visceral female imagery. Plaster models by Auguste Rodin evoke figures emerging from rock, and a room references Leda and the Swan with Zeus in bird form. A Bernini carving of Sleeping Hermaphroditus recalls merged bodies and sexual transformation. The works emphasize metamorphosis, the force of nature, and mythic explanations for passion, sadness, fear and social power imbalances.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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