Art Institute of Chicago

Ulysses Before Circe, Mercury Behind

Gaetano Gandolfi

Date

1766

Medium

Red chalk, with touches of wetted red chalk, on cream laid paper

Culture

Italy

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

In this scene, Gaetano Gandolfi illustrated the moment from Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey when the hero violently confronts the enchantress Circe, who has transformed his men into swine. In the left foreground, several of Circe’s hybrid victims seem to be in the process of transforming back into men, while behind Ulysses the god Mercury ascends through an arch. The drawing is a tour de force of compositional invention and technical skill, alive with energy and balletic form. Gandolfi’s expert use of the uncolored paper to express dramatic lighting in particular gives the work a kind of radiance.

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