Tisbe Babilonia virgine · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Tisbe Babilonia virgine
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Mesopotamia; Babylon
Description: This engraving depicts Thisbe, a young virgin from Babylon killing herself after finding her lover Pyramus already dead. Boccaccio explains that the two lovers were forbidden from being together, so they devised a plan to run away. Thisbe waited for Pyramus by a fountain (depicted on the right side of the engraving) when a lioness suddenly appeared. Thisbe ran into the woods, as depicted in the background on the left side of the image. The lioness, with a blood-stained mouth, chewed on the cloak that Thisbe left behind after running. This is illustrated in the foreground of the engraving. Pyramus had then arrived at the meeting point, only to find the bloody cloak of Thisbe. Believing her to be dead, Pyramus killed himself with his sword. Pyramus is depicted lying on the ground with his sword impaled through his chest. Thisbe found Pyramus as he was dying and impaled herself with the same sword in order to be with her lover.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Engraver)
Type: Text; Woodcut Engraving
Identifier: mta:18133
Language: lat
Source Name: Iohannis Bocacij in librum de claris mulieribus
Parent Collection: 1487 Leuven; 1487 Leuven
Image: mta_18133_OBJ.png
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Pyramus; Important Women; Famous Women; Mythology; Thisbe