オデュッセウスの帰還

Around 1508 Pinturicchio covered a room in a Siena palace with scenes from Homer, painted straight onto the plaster of the wall. The palace belonged to Pandolfo Petrucci, the man who effectively ran Siena, and the room was decorated to mark a wedding in his family. This panel shows Penelope at her great loom. Her husband Ulysses has been gone 20 years, and suitors press in on her, so she has promised to choose one when her weaving is finished, then unpicks it secretly every night to keep them waiting. Through the window a ship is coming in: Ulysses, home at last and about to step through the door in disguise. Long after Pinturicchio's death the fresco was peeled off its wall, backed onto canvas, and carried out of Italy, which is how a Siena bedroom wall now hangs in London.