Nude Couple Alerted by a Man. Studies

This drawing, linked to Apollo and Hyacinthus, shows the river-god Eurotas reclining beside a nymph who embraces him, while a man – a dynamically foreshortened figure in dishevelled attire – alerts them. Madrazo captures the anatomies with considerable narrative economy. Smaller studies in the upper corner may allude to Zephyrus throwing the discus which brought about Hyacinthus’s death, and to his burial near the temple of Apollo at Amyclae.