Orpheus

One of the most interesting works from the Lanckoronski collection is an illustration of the myth of the Thracian singer Orpheus. Together with three other paintings on this subject by Jacopo del Sellaio (a student of Fra Filippo Lippi), it forms a cycle showing the story of Orpheus. However, the performance is not a literal illustration of the literary prototypes – Ovid’s Metamorphoses and Virgil’s Georgics. Orpheus was shown in the world of the living, after leaving Hades and losing his beloved Eurydice. Playing the lyre will give braccio among the animals listening to the music. The work is an image of a magical concert of a mythical Thracian singer – musician and poet.
The symbolism of the image can be understood as a reference to marital fidelity, it is possible that the image was painted on the occasion of a wedding – researchers point to the wedding of Francesco Gonzaga with Izabella d’Este. Orpheus from the collection of the Wawel Royal Castle belongs to a series of performances that include: The Death of Eurydice dated to 1475–1480 from the collection of the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam and Orpheus in Hades from the Bohdan and Barbara Chanek Museum of Art in Kiev.

Elaborated on the basis of: K. Kuczman, M. Skubiszewska, Obrazy z kolekcji Lanckorońskich z wieków XIV-XVI w zbiorach Zamku Królewskiego na Wawelu [Eng. Paintings from the Lanckoroński collection from the 14th-16th centuries in the collection of the Wawel Royal Castle], Kraków 2008 and a text by dr Joanna Winiewicz-Wolska.

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