Epimetheus Opening Pandora's Box

Anton Tischbein’s 1771 oil painting, Epimetheus Opening Pandora’s Box, belongs to the Rococo period and is part of the Statens Museum for Kunst’s collection. The composition presents a kneeling male figure reaching toward a seated woman who holds an open box on her lap, set against a dimly lit interior with draped curtains, a vase of flowers and a wall mirror.

The work visualizes the moment from Greek myth when Epimetheus, the brother of Prometheus, encounters Pandora’s opened container. The contrast between the man’s tense, inquisitive posture and the woman’s serene demeanor suggests the tension between curiosity and the inevitable release of the evils traditionally associated with the box.

Rococo art often favored mythological subjects rendered with elegance and a sense of playful narrative. Tischbein’s choice of the Pandora episode aligns with contemporary tastes for allegorical scenes that combined moral instruction with the era’s penchant for ornamental composition.