Lot Essay
The subject of the present work celebrates lyric poetry with a scene from the mythical history of Orpheus. Here the torch-bearing Cupid guides Orpheus and his love Eurydice from the underworld as Cerberus closes on their heels. For an engraving of this subject after Angelika Kauffmann, see Birchall and Durand, 1782. See Veljko Marton, Viennese Porcelain, Samobor, Croatia, p. 185, fig. 153 for a reticulated tray from a coffee-service painted with this subject.