Object Description
389 Series: TWENTY-FOUR SCENES FROM OVID'S METAMORPHOSES
I. PYRAMUS AND THISBE (Met. 4, 162-63)
The dead Pyramus lies under some trees at left, while Thisbe behind him throws herself on a sword with upraised arms. At the right, a fountain capped with the figure of a nude putto; above, the moon; in the background at left, the fleeing lion.
Bronze, gilt, 72 x 128 mm.
The composition derives from a woodcut by Virgil Solis in Joh. Posthii Tetrasticha in Ovidii Metam, Feyrabent, Frankfurt, 1563 (see 389A). Braun considered the relief to be a Nuremberg work of the period 1565 to 1570; Bange and Bernhart on the other hand believed it to come from an Augsburg atelier at the beginning of the seventeenth century. The connection of this relief with the other examples from this series was unknown to the above writers.
Another specimen: (bronze, gilt) Baltimore (Maryland), Gordon Collection. There also exist reduced aftercasts in bronze of a mounted specimen formerly in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin. One of these is also in the Molinari Collection, in which the lion has been turned into a hare (Acc. no. 1967.14.7; 69 x 124 mm.).
Bibl.: Braun, no. 58, pl. 13; Bange, D.M., p. 136 ff., no. 8320; Weber, no. 860, 10. Auction catalog: Molthein, no. 374.
