Clytie

William Henry Rinehart

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

American Neoclassical sculptors frequently mined classical mythology for thematic inspiration. In book 4 of the “Metamorphoses,” the Roman poet Ovid tells the story of Clytie, a water nymph who was abandoned by Apollo, the sun god. Clytie gazed inconsolably at the sun for nine days, languishing nude, without food or drink. For her constancy, she was changed into a sunflower so that her face would forever follow the sun as it moved across the sky. Rinehart subtly evoked Ovid’s story by depicting a drooping sunflower in Clytie’s right hand. The tree stump with live sunflower plants serves both to enhance the narrative and to offer tensile support for the marble figure.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art