Henri Leopold Lévy,  The Death of Orpheus, 1870

The tale of Orpheus goes thusly: spawn of Apollo and Calliope, Orpheus had a supernatural gift for music. With his sick tunes he tamed wild animals, wooed women, and drowned out the cries of the Sirens. Orpheus marries Eurydice, and then, on the same day, Eurydice steps in a viper pit and dies. Lyre in hand, Orpheus descends to the Underworld and makes a deal with Hades. Eurydice may return with Orpheus, but only if Orpheus can lead the way without once looking back at his wife. He fails. Eurydice fades back into the Underworld, this time as a permanent resident. Myths abound describing the nature of Orpheus's death. In the thralls of grief he kills himself, or Zeus strikes him down with lightning. Two fit with this painting: one, he is torn apart by female followers of Dionysus, called Maenads, because Orpheus refused to worship.  In the other, Orpheus has sworn off women, and an angry mob of would-be lovers murder him for it.

In the distance, Orpheus's killers rejoice. The head, divorced from his body, lies at the center. While pale and deathly, a slight yellow glow radiates from it, and his body clings still to his lyre. Even in death, he lives on. Through his music, through his legend. Doves flit over the corpse, representing the purity and devotion of the musician. Despite the naturally grotesque subject of the painting, Lévy minimizes the gore. Orpheus's head leaks only a few red brushstrokes, and the body, while grayed with death, has no contortion about it, but stretches gracefully on the shore, as if in sleep. His eyes are not open in terror, nor his mouth agape with fear. He has peace in death, because he knows who waits below.

Compositionally, Lévy's piece centers on the head. The two streams cross exactly at that point, and the brightest colors revolve around Orpheus's decapitated dome. The bottom river creates a diagonal, further dividing body from head. While the body may have stopped moving, the head, symbolizing the soul, has one journey left.