Ovid\'s Influence on European Art

Ovid's Influence On European Art

Ovid is renowned as one the foremost poets of antiquity. He is best known for his work Metamorphoses, which has been described as "…a masterpiece on Greek and Roman myths."

Scholars are unanimous that the works ascribed to Ovid have had a profound and far reaching influence on the development of European art. As one commentator notes, " Ovid's influence on Western art and literature cannot be exaggerated."

A seminal work such as Metamorphoses had a pervasive and deep impact and influence on European art. The influence of this work can be seen, for example, in the works of artists such as Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare and Milton, as well as in the paintings of, among others, Peter Bruegel.

This paper will provide an overview of some of the most important of these influences and will also focus on the reasons why the works of Ovid have had such a profound effect on the European creative process in the arts.

Discussion: Ovid and the influence of his works

A central and somewhat obvious reason for the influence of Ovid's works, and in particular the Metamorphoses, is that "… no other book (except possibly the Old Testament) contains such a wealth of fascinating stories. The Metamorphoses is, first and foremost, an extraordinarily fecund resource for narratives, especially stories of human personalities in conflict."

In other words, and in the first instance, the Metamorphoses provides a wealth of interesting narratives and images, as well as stylistic devices, which were used by artists as themes in the Classical era, as well as in contemporary art that relies on European myth.

It should also be noted that many of the myths and stories that we find in Ovid's Metamorphoses are not original: "It's true that most of these stories obviously do not originate in Ovid. He has culled them from all sorts of sources, and many of them we have seen already in Hesiod, Homer, and elsewhere."

However, the importance of this work for art lies in the fact that as a compilation of ancient myths it became a valued resource for the artist and writer.

Therefore, we can begin by stating that a central reason for the wide and extensive influence of Ovid's writing is that it became the formal and accepted source of myths that provided the impetus to many artistic themes and works.

Scholars also assert that the Metamorphoses is in fact an important depositary of knowledge and cultural and psychological insight that has been a formative influence in the growth and development of European art. As one scholar asserts; "European literature and art would be poorer for the loss of the Metamorphoses than for the loss of Homer."

A good example of the influence of Ovid's Metamorphoses can be seen in the myth or story of Daedalus and Icarus in Book 8 of this work. In literature, for example, we find this myth in the tragedy of Dr. Faustus, where the protagonist's fall is compared to the ambition of Icarus. In the visual arts this theme and myth is evident in famous paintings, such as, "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" (1558), by Peter Brueghel. Critics have noted that Breughel used many of the detail from Ovid's story in his painting -- thus proving the pervasive influence of Ovid. "Notice how he takes details of ordinary life from Ovid's language: the farmer at his plow, the shepherd leaning on his staff, the fisherman down by the water."

To further substantiate this point we can also refer the opinion of the poet, W.H. Auden, who stated that

Ovid is the source, not only of the story but also of a great deal of standard figurative language. Anyone needing a plot for a play or a classical allusion to spice up a pentameter could go immediately to Ovid's poem and find there more than enough to meet the need.