{{Short description|Unsigned painting}} {{Infobox artwork| image_file= Piero di Cosimo 013.jpg | title=A Satyr mourning over a Nymph | artist=[[Piero di Cosimo]] | year=circa 1495 | image_size=500px | type=[[Oil painting|Oil on poplar]] | height_metric= 65.4 | width_metric= 184.2 | city= [[London]] | museum= [[National Gallery, London|National Gallery]] }} '''''The Death of Procris''''', '''''A Satyr mourning over a Nymph''''' or simply '''''A Mythological Subject''''' are names given to an unsigned, undated [[panel painting]] in the [[National Gallery, London|National Gallery]] in [[London]], United Kingdom, securely attributed to [[Piero di Cosimo]] (who never signed his works). Its date is uncertain, and its subject has been a matter of dispute. The name ''The Death of Procris'' ([[Italian language|Italian]]: ''Morte di Procri'') has been used since the 19th century, and is supposed to have been inspired by [[Ovid]]'s tale of the death of [[Procris]] at the hands of her husband [[Cephalus]], in ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' VII. The National Gallery has rejected this title since at least [[Cecil Gould]]'s catalogue of 1951, preferring to describe the subject as "''A Mythological Subject''" or "''A Satyr mourning over a Nymph''".<ref name="Gould, 421">Gould, 421</ref><ref name="gallery">{{cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=A Satyr mourning over a Nymph|url=http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=ng698|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010717163753/http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=ng698|archive-date=17 July 2001|accessdate=2009-04-29|publisher=The National Gallery}}</ref>
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the subject matter, the painting, which shows a satyr mourning over the body of a young woman, has been one of the most popular works by Piero di Cosimo. [[Erwin Panofsky]] was mesmerized by the "strange lure emanating from the picture", and other commentators have admired its "hazy atmosphere of a waking dream".<ref name="hagen">Rose-Marie Hagen, Rainer Hagen. ''What Great Paintings Say''. Taschen, 2003. {{ISBN|3-8228-2100-4}}. Pages 104-109.</ref>
== A lesson for the newlyweds == [[File:Procris1.jpg|thumb|left|Detail of the mourning faun]] Piero's interest in the story of Procris might have been occasioned by one of the first Italian plays based on a mythological subject, [[Niccolò da Correggio]]'s ''Cefalo'', which had its premiere at a wedding feast in the [[Castello Estense]] (21 January 1487) and was printed in [[Venice]] in 1507.<ref name="hagen"/> The story is supposed to have been adapted from [[Plautus]] rather than Ovid's ''[[Metamorphoses]]'' and, in contrast to earlier treatments of the story, it ends happily.<ref name="geronimus"/> If so, the painting should be read as a warning to the newlyweds against the dangers of jealousy which brought about the death of Procris.<ref name="hagen"/>
The association with the theme of marriage is reinforced by the painting's unusual dimensions which suggest it was intended for the front of a ''[[cassone]]'', or bridal chest.<ref name="hagen"/> Gould suggests that although it has often been described as a ''cassone'' front, as most Florentine paintings of similar dimensions are, it is possible that it served a different purpose, and may have been designed to be set in [[wainscoting]].<ref name="Gould, 421"/> Fermor also finds it plausible that the painting hung in the marital chamber.<ref name="fermor">{{cite book|first=Sharon |last=Fermor|title=Piero di Cosimo: Fiction, Invention, and Fantasìa|publisher=Reaktion Books|year=1993|isbn=0-948462-36-1|pages=51–53}}</ref>
The upper part of the painting bears the artist's fingerprints.<ref name="gallery"/> On the back of the panel are a card and a seal with the stemma of the [[Guicciardini]] (which may have been a later addition).<ref name="geronimus"/> There is also a drawing interpreted as the frame of a [[pilaster]].<ref name="gallery"/>
== Alchemical symbolism == [[File:Procris2.jpg|thumb|left|upright|A river landscape in the background]] Considering the alchemist background of [[Cosimo Rosselli]] (the painter's teacher and father-in-law), it has been suggested that the painting "can be explained in terms of the pictorial language of [[alchemy]]".<ref name="hagen"/> According to this conceit, the dog (whose form is visually echoed by three other dogs in the background) represents none other than [[Hermes Trismegistos]], and a tree shown growing over Procris's breast symbolises the ''[[arbor philosophica]]''.<ref name="hagen"/> The red-and-gold veil of the victim is seen as symbolic of the "red-hot" [[philosopher's stone]], and the entire composition allegedly represents the alchemist's longed-for [[Elixir of life|victory over death]].<ref name="hagen"/>
== Inconsistencies == [[File:Piero di cosimo, morte di procri 03.jpg|thumb|[[Laelaps (mythology)|Laelaps]]]] The subject matter lends itself to various levels of interpretation, prompting Dennis Geronimus to comment on some "mounting inconsistencies" of the painting with the Procris myth, such as the absence of her husband, the deadly [[spear]] and the unusual location of her wounds.<ref name="geronimus">Dennis Geronimus. ''Piero di Cosimo: Visions Beautiful and Strange''. Yale University Press, 2006. {{ISBN|0-300-10911-3}}. Pages 85-90.</ref> Most conspicuously, the woman is mourned by a [[faun]] rather than her husband. The creature is absent from Ovid's story, but is featured in Correggio's play where it acts "as the fatal meddler".<ref name="geronimus"/>
Another controversial figure is the dog looking at the scene. It is tempting to interpret it as [[Laelaps (mythology)|Laelaps]], the transparent symbol of Procris's fidelity to her jealous husband.<ref name="fermor"/> By Ovid's account, Laelaps and the [[Teumessian fox]] had been turned into stone earlier in the story, so the identity of the dog remains problematic.<ref name="geronimus"/> The river in the distance may be one of the three rivers of the Underworld.<ref name="hagen"/>
== References == {{reflist}}
==Sources== *{{cite book|authorlink=Cecil Gould|last=Gould|first=Cecil|title=The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools|publisher=National Gallery Catalogues|location=London |year=1975|isbn=0-947645-22-5}} *Potterton, Homan. ''The National Gallery''. Thames and Hudson, 1977.
{{Piero di Cosimo}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Death of Procris}} [[Category:Paintings by Piero di Cosimo]] [[Category:Paintings in the National Gallery, London]] [[Category:1495 paintings]] [[Category:Paintings about death]] [[Category:Paintings of dogs]] [[Category:Paintings of birds]] [[Category:Fauns in art]]