Ovid

The Roman poet Ovid was born in 43 BC at Sulmo, near Rome. At the age of 50 he was exiled to Tomis on the Black Sea (see Delacroix's 'Ovid among the Scythians' in the Collection) where he died in the year 17 AD.

He is chiefly famed for the 'Metamorphoses', a long verse narrative which retells ancient Greek and Roman legends, unifying them as a sequence and through the theme of the title. The poem, originally written in Latin, was translated and much admired in the Middle Ages; it subsequently provided a rich source of subject matter for artists as diverse as the Pollaiuolo brothers, Titian and Poussin.

Other well-known poems by him include the 'Fasti', which describes the rites of the Pagan Roman Calendar, and the 'Ars Amatoria' (the Art of Love).