Orpheus and Eurydice
Marcantonio Raimondi|Francesco Francia
ca. 1500–1506 · Engraving · Drawings and Prints
Marcantonio depicts the famed musician Orpheus (son of Apollo and the Muse Calliope) and his beloved Eurydice, who on their wedding day had been fatally bitten by a snake. The inconsolable groom descended to Hades, land of the dead, where his singing and lyre so charmed Pluto and Proserpina that he was allowed to lead Eurydice out of the Underworld. The moment shown may be when Eurydice, 'limping a little, from her late wound', as related by Ovid in his narrative poem 'Metamorphoses', was returned to Orpheus (Metamorphoses10.49).
- Artist
- Marcantonio Raimondi|Francesco Francia
- Date
- ca. 1500–1506
- Medium
- Engraving
- Department
- Drawings and Prints
- Credit line
- The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1956
