Sismann, G ; Lequio, M., TEFAF Maastricht, Galerie Sismann, Mars 2024, pp. 84-89

Full entry available upon request

The tragic love story of Pyramus and Thisbe, legendary lovers from Greek and Roman mythology, is portrayed according to the narrative popularised by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, Book IV . The most famous adaptation of this story is undoubtedly William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (1595), in which the plot is freely adapted. Pyramus and Thisbe, hero and heroine of a Babylonian love story, in which they can only communicate through a crack in the wall separating their homes. Although their parents refuse to consent to their union, the lovers finally resolve to flee together and agree to meet under a mulberry tree. Thisbe, who arrives first, is terrified by the roar o f a lioness with a bloody mouth and flees. In her haste, she drops her veil, which the lioness tears to pieces with jaws stained with the blood of an ox. Pyramus, believing that she has been devoured by the lioness, stabs himself with his own sword. When T hisbe returns to find the mortally wounded body of her lover under the mulberry tree, she takes her own life. From then on, the legend goes, the fruit of the mulberry tree, which had previously been white, became black. The moment that our sculptor chose to depict is that of the final episode of the story when Thisbe, recoiling in astonishment and horror, decides to kill herself with Pyramus' sword.
While our Pyramus and Thisbe is reminiscent of the art and many stylistic elements of the early Roman Baroque, the composition seems to be imbued with Florentine iconography. An unusual subject for sculpture,
it was painted in Florence around 1600 by Gregorio Pagani (Uffizi Galleries , Florence), Andrea Boscoli (Uffizi Galleries, Florence) and Antonio Tempesta (Lacma, Los Angeles). As it is very close to Pagani's painting, we might wonder about its role in the conception of our work. With the exception of a few details, such as Pyramus's nudity and raised torso, the general appearance is almost a mirror image.