Orpheus

c. 1515

Two women, a man, and a satyr, a man with goat’s legs, are in two pairs in a forested landscape in this horizontal painting. The pale-skinned women are nude, and their blond hair is tied up and back. One woman sits on a brown boulder to the left of center. One hand covers her groin, and the other hand rests on the satyr’s shoulder. The satyr has deeply tanned skin, short white hair, and a long white beard. A white cloth wraps over one shoulder and across his hips. He holds up an object, perhaps a shell, with one hand. That arm crosses over the woman’s breasts. His other hand is by his lower belly, and he looks at the shell. A bit farther back and to our right, a second nude woman also sits on a boulder. She faces away from us and holds up a long stick with her left arm, which arcs over her body. A clean-shaven, pale-skinned man sits with his back against the boulder. He has long brown hair and looks off to the distance to our right. He wears a carnation-pink robe over a sapphire-blue tunic. His legs splay in front of him, his feet bare, as he holds a bow to a violin-like instrument tucked under his chin. The two pairs sit in a grassy glade occupied also by five pheasant- or peacock-like birds. A thin river running behind the glade is lined with spindly trees that together make an impenetrable bronze-brown and laurel-green canopy. The second woman’s stick points or is directed to a gray, mountain lion-like cat on the far bank. Closer inspection reveals deer and another person, who points, tucked among the trunks. A glimpse of blue sky is visible through a break in the tree trunks.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 17

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel transferred to canvas

  • Credit Line

    Widener Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 39.5 x 81 cm (15 9/16 x 31 7/8 in.)
    framed: 67.3 x 101.1 x 4.4 cm (26 1/2 x 39 13/16 x 1 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1942.9.2

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Possibly Giovanni Cornaro, Venice, by c. 1520. Possibly Charles I, King of England [1600- 1649]. (Stefano Bardini [1836-1922], Florence); presumably by inheritance to Ugo Bardini, Paris; sold 1925 to (Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London) on joint account with (Arthur J. Sulley and Co., London); inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park after purchase 1925 by funds of the estate; gift 1942 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1979

  • Paintings of Italian Masters from the Collections of U.S.A. Museums, State Hermitage Museum, Leningrad; Pushkin Museum, Moscow; The Kiev Museum of Western and Eastern Art, 1979 (organized by the Armand Hammer Foundation, Los Angeles).

1988

  • The Pastoral Landscape: The Legacy of Venice, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988-1989, no. 1, fig. 36.

1998

  • A Collector's Cabinet, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1998, no. 6.

2008

  • Rinascimento e Passione per L'Antico. Andrea Riccio e il suo tempo, Museo Castello del Buonconsiglio, Trento, 2008, no. 57, repro.

2013

  • Art and Music in Venice: From the Renaissance to the Baroque, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Portland Art Museum, Oregon, 2013-2014, no. 87, repro.

Bibliography

1927

  • Venturi, Adolfo. Studi dal vero: Attraverso le racolte artistiche d’Europa. Milan, 1927: 16-17, fig. 148, as by Giovanni Bellini.

1931

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 164, repro.

1933

  • Venturi, Lionello. Italian Paintings in America. 3 vols. Milan and New York, 1933: 2:pl.405, as by Giovanni Bellini.

1942

  • Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 5.

1948

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 15, repro.

1952

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 54, color repro.

1957

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 43.

1962

  • Heinemann, Fritz. Giovanni Bellini e i belliniani. 2 vols. Venice, 1962: 1:144, cat. S.364; 2:fig. 487, as by Andrea Previtali (?).

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 302, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 12.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:156, color repro.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 5, repro.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 23, 646, as Attributed to Giovanni Bellini.

1974

  • Shapiro, Maurice L. "The Widener Orpheus." Studies in the History of Art vol. 6 (1974):23-36, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 22, repro.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:47-50; 2:pl. 27.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 199, no. 237, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 41, repro.

1991

  • Heinemann, Fritz. Giovanni Bellini e i Belliniani, Vol. III. Supplemento e Ampliamenti. Hildesheim, 1991: 52, cat. S 364, as by an anonymous Giorgionesque painter.

1993

  • Brown, David Alan. "The Pentimenti in The Feast of the Gods." Studies in the History of Art 45 (1993): 296.

1997

  • Anderson, Jaynie. Giorgione: The Painter of "Poetic Brevity". New York, 1997:344-345, repro.

2000

  • Fahy, Everett. Dipinti, disegni, miniature, stampe: L'Archivio storico fotografico di Stefano Bardini. Florence, 2000: 31, no. 133, as Attributed to Giovanni Bellini.

2002

  • Quodbach, Esmée. "The Last of the American Versailles: The Widener Collection at Lynnewood Hall." Simiolus 29, no. 1/2 (2002): 82, 96.

2024

  • Manges Nogueira, Alison. “Concealing portraits in Renaissance Venice: Jacometto’s painted box.” The Burlington Magazine 166 (February 2024): 133, fig. 13.

Wikidata ID

Q20175396

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