Shop art print and framed art Orphée by Gustave Moreau

Orphée is an oil on wood by the French Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau, painted in 1865 and now in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. In this work, exhibited at the Salon of 1866, Moreau refers to a famous classical myth, that of Orpheus, the best-known version of which can be found in the 11th book of Ovid's Metamorphoses. Orpheus was a supreme singer and musician, so skilled that he could bend the fiercest beasts and the entire realm of the dead to the sound of his lyre. His magnetic charm did not diminish even after the death of his beloved Eurydice: he became infatuated with the Maenads, but did not give in to their offers. Poisoned by the musician's refusal, the Maenades will tear him to pieces. In this opera, Moreau decided to slightly extend the mythological story of Orpheus. According to tradition, after killing the musician, the Maenades immediately threw his body parts into the river Ebro. But according to Moreau's interpretation, his mutilated body was discovered by a Thracian woman who, moved by pity and indignant at the Maenads' crime, placed the illustrious musician's head on what had previously been his lyre. The now lifeless eyes of Orpheus and the gaze of the woman meet and, in fact, contemplate each other, creating an indissoluble interpenetration that will probably last forever. In the background, serene landscapes from Leonardo da Vinci's memory, whose bucolic calm dilutes the atrocity of the crime that has just been perpetrated. Finally, in the bottom [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the classical period. It belongs to the symbolism style.

 

« Orphée » is kept at Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France.

 

Find the full description of Orphée by Gustave Moreau on Wikipedia.