Artwork Page for Pyramus and Thisbe

Details / Information for Pyramus and Thisbe

Pyramus and Thisbe

c. 1510

Hans Wechtlin

(German, 1480/85–after 1526)
Culture
Germany
Medium
chiaroscuro woodcut
Credit Line
John L. Severance Fund 1950.396
Catalogue raisonné
Geisberg IV,p.1457
Public Domain
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Location
Not on view
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Description

In Metamorphoses, written by the Roman poet Ovid (43 BC–AD 17), the parents of Pyramus and Thisbe forbid them to marry, so the young lovers conspire to meet at a mulberry tree beside a spring. Thisbe arrives first, but flees when she sees a lion fresh from a kill. She accidentally drops her veil, which the lion bloodies while playing with it. When Pyramus arrives, he finds the bloody veil, falsely concludes that Thisbe had been killed, and plunges his sword into his side. Here, Thisbe discovers her dead lover. Wechtlin borrowed the figures of the star-crossed lovers from an engraving by Marcantonio Raimondi, but changed the natural spring into an ornamental fountain topped with a statue of cupid.
A vertically oriented chiaroscuro woodcut depicts nude Pyramus, a man with light skin, lying on the ground with a sword in his chest. To our right, a nude Thisbe stands looking down at him. On our left, a winged child atop a tiered fountain aims a bow. In the center, a plaque with Latin text hangs from a gnarled tree, while a castle and sun sit in the distance.

Pyramus and Thisbe

c. 1510

Hans Wechtlin

(German, 1480/85–after 1526)
Germany

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