Piero di Cosimo, 'A Satyr mourning over a Nymph', about 1495

A nymph – a mythological spirit of nature imagined as a young woman – lies on a patch of grass in the foreground, blood streaming from wounds on her throat and hand. A satyr kneels next to her, mourning her death. A dog sits at her feet, balancing the stooping figure of the satyr and seemingly mourning as well. More dogs and a pelican appear at the lakeside in the background.

It has been suggested that this painting depicts an episode from the Metamorphoses (VII, 752–65), an influential poem by the ancient Roman writer Ovid. If this is the case, the beautiful nymph would be Procris, who was accidentally killed by her husband Cephalus. Believing that Cephalus was being unfaithful to her, Procris spied on him while he was hunting. Cephalus, hearing a rustle in the trees and thinking it was a wild boar, threw his spear, killing his wife. While Ovid’s work does not account for the satyr, it has been argued that the inclusion of this figure is due to a late fifteenth-century adaptation of the poem by Niccolò da Correggio. Although now little known, Niccolò was a celebrated author, his fame helped by the fact that he was also a courtier and military commander of noble birth.

Regardless of the subject, the painting probably served as the backboard of a bench or a chest, or as part of the panelling in a Florentine palace. The framing element drawn on the back may give a clue to its now-lost wooden surround. The Florentine painter Piero di Cosimo specialised in the production of paintings of such format, known as spalliere. His sixteenth-century biographer, Vasari, especially praised the ones he made for a member of the Vespucci, the same family for whom Sandro Botticelli may have painted his Venus and Mars. Unfortunately, we don't know for whom our painting was made, but it was once owned by a member of the Guicciardini, a distinguished Florentine family, which may suggest that it decorated a property of theirs.

Vasari also praised the artist’s great skill in depicting nature and animals, skills that are evident in our painting. There is a real sensitivity in the depiction of a dog mourning its beloved mistress – underdrawing revealed through technical examination shows that Piero carefully adjusted the animal’s position – and the flowers on either side seem almost to be bending in empathy with the figures next to them.