Albrecht Dürer, The Death of Orpheus' pen and ink drawing, 1494 (Kunsthalle, Hamburg).

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In this Albrecht Dürer's 1494 drawing, the banner hung in the tree reads: Orfeus der erst puseran ("Orpheus, the first sodomite"). The word puseran(t) derives from the Italian "buggerone", which in its turn derives from Latin bulgarus from which come also the terms bugger in English and bougre in French. Though the drawing could be taken as a Northern European reaction to sodomy, it is actually based on an original, now lost, by the Florentine Italian master Andrea Mantegna.

Orpheus Gallery


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