Orpheus

An etching of a circle of nude figures dancing across a wooded landscape under a cloudy sky. At left a draped old man leans on a staff, while a seated musician on a raised bank plays a lyre and a flute player sits at lower right. The fine parallel hatching models the bodies and the open countryside.

Look closer: A small inscription or signature is lettered along the bottom edge of the plate.

Artist

Pierre Brebiette

Date

1610–42

Medium

Etching

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

3581 × 2419 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Georgiana W. Sargent, in memory of John Osborne Sargent, 1924