Martha Mayer Erlebacher American, 1937–2013 The Death of Orpheus 1997 Oil on canvas
depicted two stages of his death. At the center of the composition Orpheus is attacked by the enraged women who wield large sticks. The women cut off his head and throw it into the river Hebros. At the far left the head of Orpheus floats on the river and is surrounded by an ethereal glow.
Woodmere Art Museum: Gift of the Born in 1937 in Jersey City, New Jersey,
Erlebacher Family, 2014
Erlebacher earned her BA in industrial With this large-scale, ambitious painting,
design and her MFA at the Pratt Institute
Erlebacher interprets a portion of the myth of
in Brooklyn. She and her husband, sculptor
Orpheus, a parable of jealousy, violence, and
Walter Erlebacher, taught at Pratt until
social injustice. Orpheus is most commonly
1966, at which time the couple relocated to
associated with the tragic love story told by
Philadelphia, each of them having accepted
Ovid in his epic poem, The Metamorphoses,
a teaching position at the Philadelphia
first published in 8 CE. In Ovid’s tale, the
College of Art (now the University of the
bard Orpheus and the nymph Eurydice are to
Arts). Martha taught at the University of the
marry, but on their wedding day, a venomous
Arts until 1993, although by that time she
snake kills Eurydice. The gods take pity on
had already joined the faculty of the New
the grieving Orpheus and let him travel to the
York Academy of Art, a school dedicated to
underworld to bring her back to the world of
classical training in the figurative arts. There
the living—on the condition that he not look
she served in leadership positions through
at her until they have escaped. Near the end
2006, contributing substantially to the
of their journey, Orpheus glances backwards,
development of the academic curriculum.
losing Eurydice again as she is pulled back to
Her work has been exhibited nationally
the underworld.
and internationally and is included in the collections of many museums, including
Erlebacher was attracted to the subsequent
Woodmere Art Museum, the Philadelphia
part of the Orpheus myth. Grief stricken by
Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of
the loss of his beloved, Orpheus renounces
the Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, the
women. Eventually Orpheus is killed by the
Yale University Art Gallery, the Fogg Museum
women of Thrace, who are angered by the
at Harvard University, the Cleveland Museum
rejection of their love. Here Erlebacher has
of Art, and many others. 125