BRUEGHEL, Jan the Elder
(b. ca. 1568, Brussel, d. 1625, Antwerpen)

Orpheus in the Underworld

1594
Oil on copper, 27 x 36 cm
Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence

Known for his flower paintings, Jan, like his father Pieter the Elder, also made underworld landscapes, reviving a recurrent taste for the hallucinatory. The musician Orpheus is attempting to persuade Hades and Proserpina to release Euridice, his lover. His backward glance foreshadows the tale's ending.




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