The Bridal Chamber of Herse, from a set of eight tapestrie

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The story of the love affair between the god Mercury, son and messenger of Jupiter, and Herse, one of the three daughters of King Cecrops of Athens, is told in Book 2 of Ovid's Metamorphoses; the particular scene depicted in The Bridal Chamber of Herse never actually takes place but instead is a vision which Envy conjures up in the imagination of Herse's sister Aglauros. The tapestry design has recently been attributed to Giovanni Battista Lodi da Cremona. Basing his composition and the figure of Herse on Caraglio's print after Raphael's Marriage of Alexander and Roxana, the designer has created a palpable moment: Mercury steps from his sandals as he rushes forward toward his beloved; cupids remove his cloak, draw back the bed hangings, and take off a modest Herse's slipper. The borders are thematically unrelated to the main scene. The side figures, representing the Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity and the Cardinal Virtue of Justice, are copied from designs first used for one of Raphael's Acts of the Apostles tapestries; in the lower border, the figures of Love, Fortitude, Temperance, and Diligence are based on another source.Woven in Brussels in the preeminent tapestry workshop of Willem de Pannemaker (whose mark appears in the lower right corner), the tapestry demonstrates its weavers' virtuosity in depicting the details of the lush interior, replete with elaborately patterned wall hangings and bed furnishings

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