The tapestry depicts the abduction by the Greek god Boreas of the mortal princess Orythia, who eventually became his immortal wife.
The borders comprise massed seashells of various kinds; the arms of John, 5th Earl of Exeter (1648-1700) and his Countess Anne (1649-1703) appearing in the centre of the top panel, 319cm high, 293.5cm wide.
Whilst on the Grand Tour, the earl and countess visited the Gobelins workshops in Paris on at least one occasion on their journey to Italy when they commissioned tapestries directly from M. Jean Jans.
The 1688 Burghley Inventory records: ‘The Best Bedd Chamr. ‘4 peices of Rich french Tapistry hangings made by Monsre Jans, storyes out of Ovids metamorphoses.’
