Claes Cornelisz. Moeyaert (?)
(Durgerdam 1590/91–1655 Amsterdam)
Orpheus and Eurydice,
oil on canvas, 96.5 x 133 cm, framed

Provenance:
Rolf Schmoll Collection, Hamburg (1971);
sale, Christie, Manson and Woods, London, 1 June 1973, lot 27 (as Claes Cornelisz. Moyaert);
Federico Zeri Collection, Mentana (Rome);
Private European collection

Literature:
B. Nicolson, The international Caravaggesque movement, Oxford 1979, vol. III, p. 74, ill. 188 (as Attributed to Claesz Cornelisz. Moeyaert, with measurements 92.7 x 131.9 cm);
B. Nicolson, Caravaggism in Europe, ed. by L. Vertova, Milan 1989, vol. I, p. 150, pl. 1390 (as Claesz Cornelisz Moeyaert ?, with measurements 92.7 x 131.9 cm)

Orpheus was the son of Oeagrus, or according to some versions of his myth, Apollo and the muse Calliope. He was a poet and a musician. Indeed, it was the muses who taught him to play the lyre he received as a gift from Apollo. Despite the grave omens that were revealed, Orpheus married his love, the nymph Eurydice, who tragically died from the bite of a snake hidden in the grass on their wedding day. Their tragic love story was told by Ovid, among others, in his Metamorphoses (Book X: 1-77).

In despair, Orpheus decided to make the journey to Hades, to go and reclaim his love. Here, in the dark region of the dead, Charon, Cerberus, the Furies (or Erinyes) and even the god Pluto and his wife Proserpine were so moved when they heard the young singer’s music, that they felt pity when they heard the tragic story of the two lovers. Pluto therefore allowed Orpheus to return to the world of the living with Eurydice, but on one condition, that during their journey back to the surface, he would never turn back to look at his loved one over his shoulder. Eurydice was therefore covered by a white veil and the couple departed on their journey up valley to Avernus. As they were nearing the end of their trek Orpheus, taken by a passion to see his bride, broke his promise and turned: Eurydice was instantly drawn back into the darkness, and even as she tried in vain to reach out for her husband, she died for a second and final time.

The pendant to the present painting is conserved in the Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome (see fig. 1), and is also published and catalogued as Attributed to Moeyaert by Benedict Nicolson (see op. cit. Nicolson, 1979, ill. 187). It has also been previously attributed to Matthias Stomer (Amersfoort circa 1600 – circa 1652).

In the pendant Orpheus, Pluto and Proserpine, Orpheus is shown petitioning the enthroned Pluto as he consults his wife Proserpine.