This shadowy landscape painting, created by an unknown artist who was stylistically inspired by Nicolas Poussin (c. 1594–1665), depicts a tragic event from the love life of the legendary musician and theologian, Orpheus, and his beloved—the nymph Eurydice. Orpheus can be seen positioned centrally in the foreground, seated with his musical instrument. If the viewer follows the direction of the pointing man beside Orpheus, they will find a distressed woman in blue clothing, who is recoiling from a snake. The sad scene was said to have occurred not long after the wedding day of Orpheus and Eurydice. In fact, some accounts of the myth placed the particular incident on the very day of the nuptials. Whatever the case, it would prove to be a tragic turning point in the ill-fated couple’s love story. Getting to the heart of the matter, Eurydice was ultimately bitten by the snake, and the poisonous venom delivered by the bite would prove fatal. Ovid (c. 43 BCE-17 CE), a Roman poet, described this mythical death scene:
“The outcome was even worse than foreshadowed: the newly-wed bride,
while taking a stroll through the grass with her band of attendant naiads,
suddenly fell down dead with the fangs of a snake in her ankle.
(Ovid, Metamorphoses, 10.8-10)
This sad event, no matter how tragic it was on its own, was actually just the prelude to a much more elaborate myth—the story of Orpheus journeying into the underworld in an attempt to bring Eurydice back from the dead. It was a myth masterfully retold in separate works by the aforementioned Ovid and his older contemporary poet, Virgil (c. 70-19 BCE). For the sake of brevity, however, the concise summary written by the scholar known as Pseudo-Apollodorus (c. 1st-2nd century) will be provided here:
“[Calliope, the muse of poetry, bore] Orpheus, who practised the art of singing to the lyre, and set rocks and trees in motion by his singing. When his wife, Eurydice, died from a snake-bite, he went down to Hades in the hope of bringing her up, and persuaded Pluto to send her back to earth. Pluto promised to do so, provided that on the way up Orpheus never looked round until he had arrived back at his house. But Orpheus failed to obey him, and turning round, he caught sight of his wife, and she had to return below” (Apollodorus, Library, I.3.2).
Such, then, is the myth that inspired this painting. The artwork shows Orpheus, Eurydice and their friends spending an afternoon together around the time of the wedding. Eurydice and her band of naiad attendants can be seen taking their fateful stroll through nature, unfairly ending in the snake attack. It is the exact moment of the snake bite that the artist captures on canvas.
Written by C. Keith Hansley
Sources:
- Metamorphoses by Ovid. Translated by David Raeburn. Penguin Classics; Revised Edition, 2004.
- Apollodorus, The Library of Greek Mythology, translated by Robin Hard. New York, Oxford University Press, 1997.
- https://www.theoi.com/Text/VirgilGeorgics2.html#4
- https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437331
