Iconography

ARCHITECTURE

Italy / Siena / Palazzo del Magnifico

LITERATURE

Ancient / Homer / Odyssey / Cycles / Miscellaneous
Ancient / Homer / Odyssey / Book II: Telemachus's conflict with the suitors and departure / vv. 94-105: Penelope is accused of having promised to marry when she has finished weaving the shroud of Laertes, but dissolving every night what she has woven during the day
Ancient / Homer / Odyssey / Book X: Ulysses recounts his adventures (Aeolus, Laestrygonians, Circe) / vv. 371-387: Before eating a meal, Ulysses asks Circe to return his companions to the human form
Ancient / Homer / Odyssey / Book XII: Ulysses recounts his adventures (Elpenor, Sirens, Scylla and Charybdis, Cattle of Sol) / vv. 181-191: Ulysses (bound to the mast) and his companions (with their ears stuffed) pass the Sirens
Ancient / Homer / Odyssey / Scenes without a clear textual source / Penelope weaving or undoing the shroud of Laertes (referred to in Book IV, vv. 94-109, and Book XIX, vv. 137-154) / Penelope weaving, with the suitors bursting in

Further details

This image shows apparently the suitors entering Penelope's room and seeing her weaving - it may allude to Odyssey, book IV, vv. 94-110, which reports that the suitors caught her destroying the woven fabric during the night, but it more probably shows the perillous state of faithful Penelope

Artist or creator

Pinturicchio, Bernardino (c1452-1513)

Date

1509

Location

London, National Gallery (inv. NG911; from the Palazzo del Magnifico in Siena)

Find out more

Web resources

National Gallery

Rights and Permissions

This material is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 3.0 Unported License

Acknowledgements

Record created with the generous support of the Kress foundation

Contact

For comments or queries, please contact photographic.collect@sas.ac.uk
IIIF manifest for this object