# Orpheus and Eurydice [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [VISCHER, Peter the Younger]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Brass, 16 x 11 cm ## Commentary Orpheus and Eurydice c. 1516 Brass, 16 x 11 cm Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg The Vischer family, like Dürer, enjoyed close ties with Nuremberg's humanists. They created drawings, plaquettes and small brass statuettes of classical themes for local collectors. Orpheus and Eurydice is among the first German plaquettes, a type of cast sculptural relief found more commonly in north Italy.The story comes from Ovid's Metamorphoses. Shortly after their marriage, the nymph Eurydice was bitten by a serpent and died. In an effort to revive her, Orpheus journeyed to Hades. His beautiful music prompted the underworld deities Pluto and Persephone to grant him his wish to have Euridyce return with him, but only on the condition that Orpheus not look back at her until they had safely passed the valleys of Avernus. Vischer represented Orpheus prematurely glancing at his wife and losing her forever. Both figures reflect the influence of <A onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/d/durer/2/13/2/042.html'\)" HREF="/html/d/durer/2/13/2/042.html">Dürer</A> rather than actual classical sculpture. In 1762 Christoph Willibald Gluck \(1714-1787\) composed the opera Orfeo ed Euridice. Please listen to the <A href="orpheus.html" onClick="w=window.open \('/music/18\_cent/gluck/gp\_blesd.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=300,height=300'\);w.opener=this;w.focus\(\);return false">Dance of the Blessed Spirits</A> from this opera. ## Related artworks - [Monument of Frederick the Wise]() - [Shrine of St Sebald \(detail\)]() - [Shrine of St Sebald]() - [Shrine of St Sebald]() - [Shrine of St Sebald]() - [Tomb of Dr. Anton Kress]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()