_Pinturicchio_ (Umbrian: 1454-1513). _See 693._
Penelope was wife of Ulysses, King of Ithaca, whose wanderings after
the Trojan war are told in Homer's "Odyssey," and shown in summary
in the distance of this picture. Through the open window is seen the
ship of Ulysses, with the hero bound to the mast; the sirens, whose
coasts he passed unhurt, are sporting in the sea; and on an island
near is the palace of Circe, who changed his companions into swine.
In his absence Penelope was beset by many suitors, such as are here
seen clad in joyous raiment, and was in sore straits to resist their
importunity. But "some god put it into my heart to set up a great web
in the halls, and thereat to weave a robe fine of woof and very wide;
and-anon I spake among them, saying: 'Ye princely youths, my wooers,
now that goodly Odysseus is dead, do ye abide patiently, how eager
soever to speed on this marriage of mine, till I finish the robe ...
even this shroud for the hero Laertes, father of Odysseus, against the
day when the deadly doom shall bring him low, of death that lays men at
their length.' ... So spake I, and their high hearts consented thereto.
So then in the daytime I would weave the mighty web, and in the night
unravel the same" (xix. 138-150: Butcher and Lang's translation). And
for the space of three years Penelope's web was still unwoven, and the
suitors were deceived; but afterwards, when they chid her loudly, she
finished the web, and could neither escape marriage nor devise any
further counsel, for that her son too chafed while the suitors devoured
his livelihood. But Ulysses then returned; he is now in the doorway
just entering; and presently Penelope will take down her husband's
bow--now hanging with a quiver of arrows above her head--which the
suitors could not bend, but was bent by Ulysses.
The painter makes no attempt at archæological reconstruction; he gives
us a picture of the costumes of his own day. This vivacious picture is
a fresco transferred to canvas. It was painted in the Pandolfo Petrucci
Palace at Siena, which also Signorelli's "Triumph of Chastity" once
decorated (now 910 in our Gallery).