Ceres pleading with Jove for the return of Prosperpina, from Ovid, "Metamorphoses," Book V

Ceres pleading with Jove for the return of Prosperpina, from Ovid, "Metamorphoses," Book V

Thomas Carwitham

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Carwithan worked as a decorative painter in early 18th century England, and here represents Ceres kneeling before Jove. At right, a dog that retreats over the cloud evokes Hades. An inscription identifies the source as Ovid’s "Metamorphoses," book 5, which recounts Pluto's abduction of Proserpina into the Underworld, and Ceres's subsequent appeal for her daughter's return. Similar drawings at the Yale Center for British Art, British Museum, and Tate Britain suggest that Carwithan was contemplating a scheme for a ceiling, using imagery found in murals by Louis Laguerre (1663-1721) and James Thornhill (1665/6-1734) at Greenwich, Chatsworth and Blenheim.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ceres pleading with Jove for the return of Prosperpina, from Ovid, "Metamorphoses," Book VCeres pleading with Jove for the return of Prosperpina, from Ovid, "Metamorphoses," Book VCeres pleading with Jove for the return of Prosperpina, from Ovid, "Metamorphoses," Book VCeres pleading with Jove for the return of Prosperpina, from Ovid, "Metamorphoses," Book VCeres pleading with Jove for the return of Prosperpina, from Ovid, "Metamorphoses," Book V

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.