A plate with the scene of Orpheus and Eurydice. Ca 1800 – 1820. Painting on glazed porcelain

According to classical mythology, Orpheus was a famous musician who played a lyre given to him by Apollo, the god of light and music. His music was loved by everyone: the gods, people and even animals. Orpheus married Eurydice, but she soon died after being bitten by a viper.
Orpheus was so overcome with grief that he decided to go to the underworld and bring Eurydice back. His beautiful songs even melted the heart of Hades, the king of the underworld, and Orpheus was given permission to bring his beloved back to earth on one condition: that he not look at her on the way. But when the singer crossed into the upper world, he looked back and lost his wife a second time: Eurydice had not yet crossed the border between earth and the underworld, and she disappeared into the darkness.
Angelika Kauffmann (1741–1807), the creator of the motif painted on the plate, was a Swiss-Austrian artist; she worked for a long time in Rome and London, and was a member of the art academies in Bologna, Florence, Rome, Venice and London.