Eurydice

Circle of Antonio Lombardo

1515–ca. 1524 · Marble · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

This relief evokes the love between the classical scholar Gaspare Fantuzzi (ca. 1465/70–1536) and his wife Dorotea Castelli, who were both members of patrician families in Bologna and were married in 1502. The inscription on the reverse of the first version of the Eurydice, in which the faithful wife of Orpheus is bitten by a snake (illustrated on the label), reads: "Gaspare Fantuzzi of Bologna dedicates this to the most sweet alliance of marriage and to conjugal love." This work must have been commissioned by Fantuzzi himself to celebrate his marriage. The "signature" of the Florentine sculptor Baccio Bandinelli is a later addition.

Artist

Circle of Antonio Lombardo

Date

1515–ca. 1524

Medium

Marble

Culture

Italian, Padua

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917