Nicolas Poussin painted this work for his longtime friend and patron Jean Pointel, who was a rich banker in Paris.

In its place Poussin`s landscape with snake and dying man, was hung in Pointel`s private collection.

[citation needed] Poussin places the story of Orpheus in the Campagna Romana (Roman countryside): the Castel Sant'Angelo and the Torre delle Milizie ("Tower of the Militia") figure in this painting, borrowed from the landscape of the Eternal City.

[1] Dense smoke pours from a fire which devastates the Castle, and darkens a sky already overcast with sombre clouds.

The fall of the light divides the landscape diagonally into bright and dark areas – a division clearly seen on the Torre delle Milizie.