Venus and Adonis from a set of Mythological Subjects after Raphael 1686 - 1690

Curator: Well, look at this – "Venus and Adonis from a set of Mythological Subjects after Raphael," made sometime between 1686 and 1690. What's your initial feeling? Editor: Honestly? A little overwhelming. So many figures, such an intense landscape! It's like a dream... or maybe a very staged tableau vivant. Curator: Right? It’s quite a lot to take in. As a tapestry, a textile artwork, it feels like a luxurious hug, or perhaps an extremely baroque blanket fort. I can see the Baroque sensibility with its elaborate decorative design and landscapes as a prominent part of the set up. It presents figuration but what do we see it really speaking about? Editor: Definitely seeing a story unfold. Venus looks... conflicted, maybe? Adonis is being crowned, readying to hunt, knowing what will happen if he does! He's off to become an immortal bloom. It's like a party where everyone knows how the night ends but chooses to dance anyway. It's such a tapestry, too, rooted as history painting, while its allegory whispers across eras. Curator: Exactly! The weaving feels almost painterly, doesn’t it? Especially when considering the influence from Raphael’s paintings; it aims for this very high-art aesthetic through its medium, though these textiles functioned very differently. Editor: It raises a few questions for me about access, too. Like, who did this narrative serve? Who gets to see themselves, or their aspirations, in this version of the myth, or in a room full of tapestries in general? Curator: Oh, absolutely. Consider its historical moment: tapestry, while based on drawings made by Raphael in the early 16th century, became a symbol of wealth, nobility, power. This woven interpretation elevates domesticity and the space it occupied, as though you live with this high minded history, everyday. How incredible that you can warm your toes while literally being blanketed in the narrative power and the class commentary simultaneously? Editor: That’s it exactly, you're warmed in history while power literally hangs over your head. I love seeing art do that. The intimacy that becomes a political theater. I can respect that... it makes the experience deeper for me. Curator: Me too, absolutely. Editor: A myth rendered, unrendered, rendered again through wealth's eye... interesting, so very interesting.