Pyramus and Thisbe by Pierre-Claude Gautherot: Ovid's Tragic Lovers (1799)
Evening is falling outside the walls of Babylon. Beside an ancient stone tomb, under a tall tree, a young man lies dead on a red cloak, his head thrown back and blood on his chest. A girl kneels over him, one hand holding his lifeless arm, the other already raising his sword towards her own breast. At his fingertips lies a torn yellow veil. This is Pyramus and Thisbe , painted in 1799 by Pierre-Claude Gautherot, a pupil of Jacques-Louis David, and it shows the last seconds of one of the oldest love tragedies in Western literature. Pierre-Claude Gautherot, Pyramus and Thisbe, 1799. Oil on canvas. Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Melun. Image via the Sapiens Verbum print shop. 🖼️ Get this painting as a print → Quick facts Artist: Pierre-Claude Gautherot (1769–1825) Date: 1799 Medium: Oil on canvas Collection: Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Melun, France Source: Ovid, Metamorphoses , Book IV What is the story? Ovid tells the tale in Book IV of the Metamorphoses . Pyra...