Orpheus and Eurydice

Orpheus and Eurydice

Agostino Carracci

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Unable to keep his promise not to look back until they reached the light of day, Orpheus lost Eurydice a second time. Agostino depicts the dramatic moment when Orpheus, throwing aside his instrument, tries to pull his love free of the flames of Hades. Ovid describes Orpheus vainly reaching out for her, grasping nothing but empty air (Metamorphoses 10.58–59), and Virgil, in the Georgics (4.498), writes of Eurydice stretching 'strengthless hands' toward Orpheus. Close examination reveals that the two figures do not quite touch each other—this elusive grasp adds erotic tension as well as pathos to the subject. Although this is a legitimate mythological subject, with considerable narrative interest, it is generally thought to belong to the set of fifteen small engravings characterized by suggestive subjects—ranging from groupings of attractive nudes to genuinely lewd depictions—and known as the Lascivie. This series of engravings, of Agostino's own invention, were carried out in a different technique from his reproductive prints, and instead resemble quickly executed pen sketches. Eight copies after of the Orpheus and Eurydice are known, suggesting that this was the most popular of the Lascivie series.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Orpheus and EurydiceOrpheus and EurydiceOrpheus and EurydiceOrpheus and EurydiceOrpheus and Eurydice

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.