Jan Brueghel the Elder “Orpheus, Pluto and Proserpina in the Underworld” at the Colonna Gallery in Rome

Orpheus, Pluto and Proserpina in the Underworld

Jan Brueghel the Elder (1588 - 13 January 1625) “Orpheus, Pluto and Proserpina in the Underworld”

Oil on copper (25 x 34.4 cm) 1594

While Bernini's sculpture in the Borghese Gallery in Rome shows us the moment of Proserpina being abducted by Pluto, this painting by Jan Brueghel the Elder depicts Proserpina as Queen of Darkness with Orpheus visiting them in the hope of finding Eurydice, his young wife who was killed by a snake bite.

While searching for his Eurydice with his eyes, he plays and addresses his lament to them:

Orpheus, Pluto and Proserpina in the Underworld

“If the story of an ancient abduction is true, Love
unites you too. Through these places of terror,
this great Chaos, this vast empire of silence,
please weave together the abbreviated destinies of Eurydice.
A delay is very little...

As he spoke, striking the strings of his lyre, the ghosts wept [...] the queen and king of the underworld could not resist, Eurydice, called, leaves the new shadows and returns with slow steps, hampered by her wound.”
Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book X.

Orpheus was renowned for charming men and attracting animals with his music. Here he is, descended into the Underworld, playing his lyre before the sovereign couple in this dark and sad setting.

Orpheus, Pluto and Proserpina in the Underworld Despite the presence of the musician, Proserpina's facial expression and gesture of despair show that she remains inconsolable given the sad spectacle before her in the realm of the dead.

A setting populated by monsters and characters almost identical to those in Brueghel's two other paintings in the Colonna Gallery in Rome, namely “Descent of Christ into Limbo” and “Aeneas and the Sibyl in Hades”.

The River Styx is very prominent here, occupying almost the entire right-hand side of the painting.

Brueghel Christ Limbo | Aeneas Sibyl | Pluto Proserpina | Magi | St. Peter Celestine
Art Story History Garden | Bronzino | Brueghel | Tintoretto | Van Wittel | di Giovanni | Vivarini | Palma | Voet | Maratta
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