Dual purpose

Narcissus Tapestry

France or Flanders, 1480-1520
Wefts: wool and silk yarns; warp: wool
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Charles Potter Kling Fund, 68.114

no. 52

The aristocratic Narcissus on this Franco-Flemish tapestry from the end of the fifteenth century depicts the Ovidian tale of a handsome youth who is too proud to return the love of his many admirers. He is punished for his pride, and in this apparently idyllic scene of abundant nature, Narcissus is falling in love with his own reflection, which will lead to misery and death. This is the only surviving millefleur tapestry depicting a scene from Ovid’s Metamorphoses.

For two millennia, artists and writers have pondered the fate of Narcissus. The Christian reading of the story is straightforward: Narcissus has made a God of himself and is guilty of idolatry. Renaissance secular retellings celebrate the beauty of youth: unclothed he became a symbol of homoerotic love, and clothed the embodiment of the moral admonition against pride. Narcissus, in his vain embrace of his own image in the fountain, was inventor of painting, according to the philosopher and architect Leon Batista Alberti (1404-1472).

The sartorial splendor of the young man in the tapestry strengthens the warning against pride. The artist has captured Narcissus at the fatal moment. Still in motion, one foot raised as he leans over the fountain to drink, his cape billowing in the wind, he does not yet know that he will never leave the fountain again. He will waste away until all that remains is a narcissus flower.