Metamorphoses Exhibition in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam in 2026

The Metamorphoses special exhibition brings 80 passionate masterpieces from all over the world to the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam in 2026.

Ovid’s Metamorphoses is a collection of passion and desire, lust and jealousy, cunning and deceit. All 80 masterpieces selected for the special Metamorphoses exhibition in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam in 2026 were inspired by these tales from antiquity. Artists including Titian, Correggio, Cellini, Caravaggio, Rubens, Rodin, Brancusi, and Magritte will show flesh, violence, and above all, beauty. The permanent collection of the Rijksmuseum is always worth seeing, but these masterpieces will add additional appeal in early 2026.

Metamorphoses Exhibition in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam in 2026

Passion and desire, lust and jealousy, cunning and deceit — few classical texts have stirred the imagination of artists as deeply as Ovid’s Metamorphoses. In the similarly named exhibition in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam in 2026, artists as diverse and talented as Titian, Correggio, Cellini, Caravaggio, Rubens, Rodin, Brancusi, Magritte, and Bourgeois rival the imaginative power and artistic vision of one of Antiquity’s greatest poets.

Over 80 masterpieces from museums and collections worldwide will be on display in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam from 6 February to 25 May 2026. (Buy tickets online.) A different configuration will be at the Galleria Borghese in Rome from 22 June to 20 September 2026.

Highlights of the Metamorphoses Exhibition in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam in 2026

The Metamorphoses exhibition presents art from across the centuries in a variety of media, with painting, sculpture, precious metalwork, and ceramics, as well as contemporary photography and video art.

However, the highlights are most likely the works of Old Masters such as Titian’s Danaë, painted for King Philip II of Spain; Tintoretto’s Minerva and Arachne; Correggio’s iconic Jupiter and Io, as well as Ganymede Abducted by the Eagle and Danaë (all painted for the Duke of Mantua); and Caravaggio’s Narcissus.

Rodin’s marble Pygmalion and Galatea is presented alongside Gérôme’s painting of the same subject. Three of Arcimboldo’s composite, grotesque faces will also be on display.

In addition, the life-size bronze Perseus with the Head of Medusa, made by the Dutch artist Hubert Gerhardt for the Duke of Bavaria, will be shown for the first time together with its model, the prototype for Cellini’s famous work of the same title.

Ovid’s Metamorphoses

Very few texts from antiquity have inspired as many artists as Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid, 43 BCE–17 CE). In this monumental epic, he described a world filled with transformations of gods and humans into animals, plants, or stones.

In his 1604 Schilder-boeck, Karel van Mander described the work as a ‘Bible for artists’. This was by no means an exaggeration: after the Bible, Metamorphoses remained for centuries one of the most important and inexhaustible sources for painters, sculptors, engravers, composers, writers, and poets. Its influence persists to this day.

‘All things change, but nothing dies’ is the message Ovid conveys in Metamorphoses, his narrative poem in which gods become animals, nymphs are transformed into trees, humans turn to stone, and stones become human. Many of the stories explore interactions between gods and mortals, with love playing a major role – far from always with mutual consent. Violence and treachery also recur throughout the stories.

The exhibition highlights the depiction of several iconic fables. They include the creation of the cosmos and the world from formless chaos; the story of the weaver Arachne, who is transformed by the jealous goddess Minerva into a spider to weave her webs for all eternity; and the affairs of Jupiter, the chief god, who repeatedly disguises himself – as a bull, a swan, in a shroud of mist, or as a shower of gold – to deceive his jealous wife Juno and his victims.

Metamorphoses from 6 February to 25 May 2026 in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (buy tickets online) and in a different configuration in the Galleria Borghese from 22 June to 20 September 2026.

→ See also Top Special Exhibitions in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam in 2026 for more temporary shows.

Visitor Information for the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is open every day of the year, including Christmas and New Year’s Day, from 9:00 to 17:00. Basic admission is €25; small surcharges may be added for some special exhibitions. Admission is free for children under 18 years old, but booking a free time slot is essential.

Online time-slot reservation tickets are essential — no tickets are sold at the museum itself. Time slots are currently a full hour, but may be shorter for major special exhibitions. You may enter the main museum an hour before a booked official guided tour.

For larger exhibitions, the time slot is for entering the special exhibition — see the permanent collections afterwards. Major special exhibitions are in the Philips Wing — use a separate entrance from street level at busy times, or from inside the main museum lobby when visitor numbers are lower. The entrances are well marked. Larger special exhibitions use a free coat check and lockers separate from the main museum.

Smaller temporary exhibitions elsewhere in the museum are often seen without specific time slots. During the same period as the Metamorphoses exhibition, also see FAKE! Early Photo Collages and Photomontages. This exhibition of 50 early manipulated photos (1860 to 1940) is on show from 6 February to 25 May 2026 in the Photo Gallery (3rd floor) of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

→ See also Top Special Exhibitions in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam in 2026 for more temporary shows.