Ovid, the Rijksmuseum recounts the power of metamorphoses

Passion, desire, deception, jealousy: these are the eternal engines of human and divine change recounted by Ovid in the 'Metamorphoses', one of the founding texts of the Western imagination. To this poem, written more than two thousand years ago, the Rijksmuseum dedicates the great spring exhibition 'Metamorphoses', scheduled until 25 May 2026, realised in collaboration with the Galleria Borghese in Rome.

The exhibition brings together more than 80 masterpieces from international museums and collections, spanning centuries of art history, from the Renaissance to the 20th century, to show how the theme of transformation - physical, moral, symbolic - has continued to interrogate artists over time.

The exhibition links sculpture, painting and decorative arts, bringing together names such as Bernini, Titian, Correggio, Caravaggio, Rubens, through to Rodin, Brancusi, Magritte and Louise Bourgeois. At the centre, the great mythological tales: Daphne who transforms herself into a laurel tree, Arachne mutated into a spider, Narcissus prisoner of his own image, Jupiter who takes on different forms to seduce and dominate.

Among the most eagerly awaited works are Titian's Danae, Caravaggio's Narcissus, Correggio's Danae and Jupiter and Io, Tintoretto's Minerva and Arachne, and Bernini's famous Dormant Hermaphrodite. The comparison between Renaissance tradition and modernity is also particularly significant, with works by Rodin and Magritte demonstrating how classical myth continues to be a key to interpreting the present.

From an institutional point of view, 'Metamorphosis' fits into the groove of major European museum collaborations, strengthening the cultural axis between Amsterdam and Rome. After the Dutch stop, the exhibition will in fact be hosted by the Galleria Borghese from 22 June to 20 September 2026, confirming the strategic value of the international circulation of major exhibition projects, as Francesca Cappelletti and Taco Dibbits, directors of the two institutions and enthusiastic about this collaboration, state.