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January 20-April 21 |
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JEAN-BAPTISTE BLAISE SIMONET,
French, 1742-1813;
after JEAN MICHEL MOREAU, French, 1741-1814
Nyctimene is transformed into an Owl as Punishment for her Criminal Passion
for her Father Nyctee
in Les Metamorphoses d’Ovide, Volume 3, Paris
engraving, 1767
Lent by UNC-CH's Rare Book Collection
The Metamorphoses, by the ancient Roman poet Ovid, is regarded as a classic source of myths and fables. It was viewed with enthusiastic interest during the eighteenth century because of its entertaining themes: transformation, conflict, crime, punishment, and passion.
Illustrated
here is a moral tale concerning the consequences of forbidden love.
According to the fable, Nyctimene sleeps with her father, the King of
Lesbos. The engraving depicts the terrible moment when, conscious of
her shame, she attempts to flee from her father’s desecrated bed and
while in motion changes into an owl. Nyctimene’s monstrous body becomes
both product and symbol of her sin. In this scene, the grotesque can
be interpreted as the actual evolving hybrid creature, as well as the
precarious moment in which the unrecognizable and the illogical presents
itself.