''Young Couple'' is a c.1505-1510

Carrara marble Carrara marble, Luna marble to the Romans, is a type of white or blue-grey marble popular for use in sculpture and building decor. It has been quarried since Roman times in the mountains just outside the city of Carrara in the province of Massa ...

relief sculpture by

Tullio Lombardo Tullio Lombardo (c. 1455 – November 17, 1532), also known as Tullio Solari, was an Italian Renaissance sculptor. He was the brother of Antonio Lombardo and son of Pietro Lombardo. The Lombardo family worked together to sculpt famous Catholic ...

, now in the

Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal do ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. It was previously known as ''Bacchus and Ariadne'', whilst a recent study by Claudia Kryza-Gersch has suggested the alternative title of ''The Singing Poet and His Lover''. It shows two busts on a rectangular background, drawing on similar works not only in ancient Roman funerary portraits but also North European double portrait paintings, the latter also sometimes adopted by Venetian painters in the early 16th century. Its mature classicism and the subjects' poetic mood also draws on paintings by

Giorgione Giorgione (, , ; born Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco; 1477–78 or 1473–74 – 17 September 1510) was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic qualit ...

. A similar ''Double Portrait of a Young Couple'' is now in Venice's Galleria Franchetti. The possible depiction of its subjects as

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; grc, wikt:Διόνυσος, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstas ...

and

Ariadne Ariadne (; grc-gre, Ἀριάδνη; la, Ariadne) was a Cretan princess in Greek mythology. She was mostly associated with mazes and labyrinths because of her involvement in the myths of the Minotaur and Theseus. She is best known for having ...

seems to derive from Francesco Colonna's allegorical novel ''

Hypnerotomachia Poliphili ''Hypnerotomachia Poliphili'' (; ), called in English ''Poliphilo's Strife of Love in a Dream'' or ''The Dream of Poliphilus'', is a book said to be by Francesco Colonna. It is a famous example of an incunable (a work of early printing). The wor ...

'', published in Venice in

1499 Year 1499 ( MCDXCIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–December * January 8 – Louis XII of France marries Anne of Brittany, in accordance with a l ...

, with a printed illustration of that pair in the same pose as the sculpture.

References

Sculptures by Tullio Lombardo Sculptures of the Kunsthistorisches Museum category:Marble sculptures category:1500s sculptures category:1510s sculptures {{sculpture-stub