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Odysseus and the Daughters of Lycomedes

Creator

Italian Artist · 1481–1536

Though Baldassare Peruzzi's artistic versatility was not uncommon in the 1500s, he was most successful as a draftsman and architect. An early promoter of axonometric drawing, he made much-admired studies of antique buildings. Many of his painted house facades, all now destroyed, were meant to look like grand "ancient" sculptural facades, wittily combining his characteristic illusionism with antiqu

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Date: about 1520
Medium: Pen and brown ink, black chalk, heightened with white gouache; squared in black chalk for transfer
Culture: Italian
Department: Drawings
Institution: Getty Museum

Knowing that her son would die if he fought in the Trojan war, Achilles' mother sent him to live with the daughters of King Lycomedes disguised as a woman. Odysseus, hearing that Achilles was there, went to the palace dressed as a merchant. He offered the girls jewelry and clothing but also included a sword, spear, and shield. When a trumpet sounded, Achilles automatically grabbed the weapons, thus revealing his disguise. Here Odysseus stands at the left, inviting the king's daughters into the palace. Baldassare Peruzzi produced this drawing in preparation for one of four oval frescoes in a Roman villa. The drawing's high degree of finish, with no pentimenti, indicates that it may have been used as a modello.

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