Orpheus Charming the Animals

An embroidered panel shows a robed figure at the center beneath a fruit-laden tree, surrounded by deer, lions, swans, elephants and smaller birds. Stitched landscape details include a walled town, a tiled roof, and a green hillside, worked in silk on canvas.

Look closer: Small birds and a swan float among the lower water and grass patches.

Artist

Unknown

Date

second quarter 17th century

Medium

Canvas worked with silk thread; tent, stem, split, knot, long-and-short, and couching stitches

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

4000 × 2071 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Irwin Untermyer, 1964