The Challenge of the Pierides, from Ovid's Metamorphosis (Book V: 294-678) 1548 - 1606

Karel van Mander I made this drawing, The Challenge of the Pierides, from Ovid's Metamorphosis, using pen and brown ink, with brush and gray wash, around the turn of the 17th century. This detailed drawing depicts a contest between the muses and the Pierides, a group of sisters who dared to challenge them in song, drawn from the famous Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses. Van Mander was working in a time when the influence of classical literature and mythology was pervasive in European art. His decision to illustrate this particular episode can be understood within the context of the period’s fascination with themes of artistic skill, competition, and divine retribution. In Northern Europe at the time, artists were questioning the established norms of art academies and guilds, similar to the Pierides contesting the established muses. To truly understand the drawing, we might delve into the social and institutional history of art in the Netherlands during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, using archival records of art academies, guild regulations, and biographical accounts of artists like Van Mander.