Rijksmuseum to display Louvre’s rarely loaned sculpture for first time in Netherlands
The Rijksmuseum will display one of the Louvre’s most rarely loaned sculptures, the world-famous ancient Roman Sleeping Hermaphroditus, beginning Feb. 6 as part of the major exhibition Metamorphoses, marking the work’s first-ever presentation in the Netherlands.
The exhibition brings together more than 80 works inspired by the Roman poet Ovid’s epic Metamorphoses and will run through May 25, 2026.
Sleeping Hermaphroditus is a Roman marble sculpture from the second century A.D. It depicts a scene from Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which includes roughly 250 stories exploring the theme of transformation. The myth centers on the spring-dwelling nymph Salmacis, who fell in love with the youth Hermaphroditus. After he rejected her, Salmacis prayed to the gods to unite them forever.
As Hermaphroditus bathed in her spring, Salmacis embraced him, and their bodies merged into a single form that was both male and female.
The sculpture was altered in the early 17th century by Italian sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini. After the work was excavated in the spring of 1618 and presented to Cardinal Scipione Borghese, Bernini was commissioned to create a base for the reclining figure. He added a marble mattress and pillow designed to appear compressed beneath the sculpture’s weight.
The Rijksmuseum exhibition Metamorphoses explores how artists across centuries have drawn inspiration from Ovid’s poem. The show features works by artists including Titiaan, Correggio, Cellini, Caravaggio, Rubens, Rodin, Brancusi, Bourgeois and Bernini.
The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the Galleria Borghese in Rome and includes loans from museums and private collections worldwide.
