# Death of Orpheus [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [DÜRER, Albrecht]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Pen drawing, 289 x 225 mm ## Commentary This drawing is probably derived from a painting by Andrea Mantegna, whose printed graphics Dürer copied. Mantegna in his turn was using Greco-Roman models. This landscape, the details of the drapery folds and the handling of the line in general are worked out in a quite independent fashion. The centre of the picture is the male nude in motion. According to the Metamorphoses by the classical author Ovid \(43 B.C.-17/18 A.D.\), Orpheus introduced homosexual love to Thrace and for that reason is beaten to death by two Thracian women during a bacchanal. The group of figures is placed before a central tree in which an open book with music is hanging. The classical singer's lyre is lying at his feet. In the tree a banderole with legends: "Orfeus der erst puseran" \(Orpheus, the first pederast\). The woman at the left and the boy were used by Dürer a few years later in the engraving known as "Jealousy" \(more correctly "Chastity and Unchastity"\). <P> <TABLE ALIGN=LEFT CELLPADDING=5 BORDER=1 WIDTH=320 BGCOLOR="\#99CCCC"> <TR VALIGN=MIDDLE><TD><IMG SRC="/support/gif/listen.gif" BORDER=0 VALIGN=MIDDLE> Suggested listening \(streaming mp3, 7 minutes\):<BR><A HREF="\#" onClick="w=window.open \('/music1/18\_cent/gluck\_orfeo.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=350,height=350'\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return true"><B>Cristoph Willibald Gluck: Orfeo, Act I, Orpheus' aria in G Major</B></A> </TD></TR></TABLE> ## Related artworks - [A Young Girl of Cologne and Dürer's Wife]() - [Abduction of a Woman]() - [Abduction of Proserpine on a Unicorn]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Adam and Eve]() - [Adam \(detail\)]() - [Adam]() - [Adoration of the Magi \(detail\)]() - [Adoration of the Magi \(detail\)]() - [Adoration of the Magi \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()