Overall: 14 7/8 × 8 5/8 in., 14.5 lb. (37.8 × 21.9 cm, 6.6 kg)
Classification:
Sculpture
Credit Line:
Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Accession Number:
17.190.737
Not on view
This relief evokes the love between the classical scholar Gaspare Fantuzzi (ca. 1465/70–1536) and his wife Dorotea Castelli, who were both members of patrician families in Bologna and were married in 1502. The inscription on the reverse of the first version of the Eurydice, in which the faithful wife of Orpheus is bitten by a snake (illustrated on the label), reads: "Gaspare Fantuzzi of Bologna dedicates this to the most sweet alliance of marriage and to conjugal love." This work must have been commissioned by Fantuzzi himself to celebrate his marriage.
Signature: Spurious signature on lower edge of relief: BACCIVS BANDINELIVS FECIT
Eugène Piot (between 1798 and 1890; sale, Catalogue des Objects d'Art de la renaissance..., Paris, Hôtel Drouot, May 21–24, 1890, no. 3); Charles Mannheim ; J. Pierpont Morgan (until 1917; to MMA)
Artist: Date: ca. 1530–40 Accession Number: 1982.60.108 Date: ca. 1530–40Medium: Bronze, with dark brown lacquer patinaAccession: 1982.60.108On view in:Gallery 537