Multimedia Art Productions

Ovidius, Metamorphoses X

In Book X of Metamorphoses, Ovid describes the figure of Orpheus as the archetype of the musician whose singing not only evokes emotion, but influences the order of nature itself. His music sets trees in motion, softens the cruelty of animals and causes stones to lose their weight. Music functions here as a transformative force: it changes the relationship between humans, nature and the cosmos.
After the loss of Eurydice, Orpheus turns away from human society and turns to nature. In Ovid's description, trees gather around him, roots move, and the landscape forms itself around the sound, as it were. These scenes are among the most explicit depictions in classical literature of music as a form of metamorphosis — not symbolic, but physical and spatial.
The theme of Book X is therefore not merely narrative, but aesthetic and philosophical: music transcends its function as an art form and becomes a means of changing substance and form. This view is in line with early modern musical aesthetics, in which sound was seen as a force of nature, akin to breath, movement and matter.

Although Orpheus originally played a lyre, in later visual traditions (Renaissance, Baroque) he is often depicted with:
• lute
• early guitar
• viola da mano
Not historically “correct”, but symbolically logical: the stringed instrument = bearer of Ovidian power.
A painted guitar depicting such a scene therefore says:
this instrument does something — it changes those who listen.

Ovidius, Metamorphoses X, 1–85 en 86–105.
At the beginning of Book X, Ovid introduces Orpheus' singing as a force that, after Eurydice's death, appeals not only to humans, but especially to nature. The following verses (86–105) explicitly describe how trees, animals, and even stones physically respond to the music. Music appears here as an active force of nature that initiates metamorpho

Ovidius, Metamorphoses X, 86–105; XI, 1–66.
The description of Orpheus' singing and its effect on nature in X, 86–105 is continued in Book XI, where the consequences of his music and death remain visible in the landscape. Together, these passages emphasise music as a force whose effect continues over time, even beyond the moment it is heard.

I. The painting I
A landscape in motion unfolds on the sound box. Figures emerge from leaves and bark, only to return to them. Arms extend into vines, faces dissolve into greenery. What is human becomes nature; what is nature seems to listen.
There are no fixed boundaries here. Everything is in transition. The trees bow to the music, the earth seems to breathe. The music is not a sound above the image, but the force that keeps the image in flux.
This is the world of Orpheus — not as a story, but as an effect. A game that does not compel, but opens up. The listening figures are not spectators; they are absorbed into the movement of the sound, like wood and string when they begin to resonate.
The instrument does not carry this world as decoration. It is this world. Wood that was once a tree carries movement once again. Gut strings respond to touch like leaves to wind: sensitive, changeable, never repeated identically.
In this space, music resounds. Not as a fixed form, but as a living act — balancing between control and letting go, between form and breath. Music becomes nature, nature becomes sound. Here, man and nature are not separate. The body becomes a leaf, the arm becomes a vine, silence becomes sound. The painting does not depict a scene, but a transition: as wood becomes string, and string becomes music.
Orpheus is not depicted, but present — in the listening figures, in the movement that connects everything.

In Metamorphoses, music is rarely decorative. It sets change in motion:
• Orpheus' playing softens stones
• Trees, animals and humans react physically to sound
• The boundaries between humans, animals and nature become blurred
This is literally reflected here:
👉 figures that are half human, half tree / green / root-like
👉 faces that seem to grow out of trunks or bushes

Original
“Orpheus, dien men Seys ende zanghen ghenoemt, hadde de krachte om de natuur door sijn muzyk te bewegen.”
English Translation
Orpheus, whom some called the singer, possessed the power to move nature through his music.

The musician: no coincidence, no decoration
Whether it is a lute, guitar or flute — iconographically Orpheus:
• seated
• not heroic
• surrounded by attentive nature
Important detail: the music does not seem loud, but appealing. This fits with Ovid's Orpheus: no power, but eros.

• One figure reads (logos, text, order)
• One plays (sound, affect, movement)
• and in Ovid: word becomes sound, sound becomes body.

II. The painting (explanation)
The iconography of this guitar is derived from a long tradition in which music is represented as a transformative force. The figures depicted are not opposed to nature, but are part of it. Their bodies merge with plants and root structures, referring to the Ovidian idea of metamorphosis: change as a gradual process, not as an abrupt event.
This imagery ties in with the myth of Orpheus, in which music is not so much depicted as it is active. Nature responds to sound; trees, stones and people are moved and changed by the act of listening itself. The fact that stringed instruments in particular are often painted with such images underlines the idea that the instrument is not a neutral object, but a participant in this process.
The use of gut strings reinforces this symbolism. Unlike metal strings, they are organic in origin and react strongly to touch, tension and the environment. Their sound does not arise immediately, but develops over time. This makes the player jointly responsible for the process of creation.


Man and nature are not separate here. The body becomes a leaf, the arm becomes a vine, silence becomes sound. The painting does not depict a scene, but a transition: as wood becomes string, and string becomes music.
Orpheus is not depicted, but present — in the listening figures, in the movement that connects everything.

What those green figures mean
The green, contorted figures are reminiscent of:
• Dryads / hamadryads (tree nymphs)
• People who are not yet completely trees
• Or who are no longer human
In Ovid, they are often victims or witnesses of passion, music or divine intervention.
Important detail: they do not appear aggressive — rather attracted, drawn in by the music.

Why those green figures are so important
In Ovid, metamorphosis is rarely:
human → tree (finished)
It is almost always:
human → becoming → nature
The green figures in the painting:
• are not dead
• are not completely trees
• still have expression, attention, weight
This points to listening bodies. Music works before the final change.

• • this wood once lived
• • this wood moves others
• • this wood changes those who listen
• That is almost literally Ovid's poetics.

1. On the Power of Orpheus’ Song
Original (Early Modern Dutch)
“Want Orpheus, wiens sanghen soo lieffelijck was, dat alle vlieghende, loopende ende cruypende beesten, ja selffs de bomen ende de steenhen, welke met haer wortels vas staen, daer door aengaende, haer deser ghehoorsaem mach laten bewegen, daer om hij tot een seer hooch ghecostumeert ghenaemt werd onder de oudtheyt.”
English Translation
For Orpheus, whose singing was so sweet that all flying, walking, and creeping creatures — indeed even the trees and stones, which stand fast by their roots — were thereby set in motion and made obedient, was therefore highly celebrated and exalted among the ancients.

2. On the Instrument and Its Effect
Original
“In des selfs luidts ghebruyck, ten dienste van de muzyk, waren de vedelen (ofte harpen), zo men meerendeels Nymphen ofte Muzen ghenoemt heeft, siende dat door sulck instrument meniche beesten ghemaect werden te bedaren.”
English Translation
In the use of its sound, in the service of music, the fiddles (or harps), often named after nymphs or muses, were known for their power to calm many beasts through such an instrument.

3. On Orpheus as Transformer of Nature
Original
“Soo hebben d’ouden hem thans ten voorsien ende ghenaemt, die door sijn stem ende sanghen de herten, beesten ende woud-dieren wat gedeghegelijke kancken tastbaer mach veranderen.”
English Translation
Thus the ancients have portrayed and named him as one who, through his voice and song, could tangibly alter the very disposition of stags, beasts, and creatures of the forest.

Restoration 1995