English: Ulysses and Penelope by Henri Roux Ainé (translated related text) The most admirable canto of the Odyssey furnished the subject of this picture. Penelope converses with her so much regretted, so desired, so much mourned Ulysses and whose absence has withered her poor heart and yet she does not recognize him: for Odysseus has taken on the appearance and costume of a beggar broken by age and the fatigue of a long journey. And when Odysseus wants to pretend, no feeling, however powerful it may be in his heart, appears on his face. Now Odysseus pitied in his heart his afflicted wife; but his eyes remained, like horn or iron, motionless in his lids; he held back his tears on purpose.

The painter has perfectly rendered this feigned insensitivity with so many motives of pain and joy; that face full of an astuteness which is not vulgar; that fine and restrained gaze at the same time, which presupposes great thoughts, but which does not reveal them: Ulysses at last! In this painting, the beggar is indeed barefoot, barely dressed in a short white tunic and a small yellow coat; he holds in his hand the stick that Eumeus gave him: but a single circumstance, of little importance in truth, does not agree with Homer's account: the traveler is seated on a section of column, and not on the stool well polished and covered with a skin which Penelope ordered to be brought, and which is mentioned twice in succession, according to the Homeric custom. I would prefer the stepladder.

As for Penelope, it is impossible to imagine anything more gracious, more dignified and more chaste at the same time, more similar to this type of the poet, which includes Diana, Juno and Venus modest, which contains even more, a forecast of the Christian wife. She comes ; She takes a last step, and she stops with a charming look, with a delicious gesture of her right arm, before these altered features which undoubtedly tell her something. The painter wanted to indicate that Penelope is going to tell the pretended to beggar by what ruse worthy of the wife of Ulysses she delayed for a long time the answer that her suitors solicited, and this canvas, work of her days, stratagem of her nights: to be well understood, the painter has put in her hand two spindles. The idea is ingenious, and yet not too so; which would be a more serious defect than the very absence of an idea. How many things would remain for me to say about this charming composition, if I did not lack space! What beautiful things! for I would gladly quote the entire passage from Homer. I urge at least those who will cast a glance here to re-read this magnificent nineteenth canto. O nature! oh poetry! domestic roof! delights of the spouses! tears and tenderness of the heart! you are there. It is not a small eulogy of this composition to assure that one will be able to look at it with pleasure, as I am doing at the moment, after having reread Homer.

I must say one more word about the slave, of whom only the head is visible: she is the faithful Eurynome, the only one of Penelope's maids who supports her and encourages her in her chaste resolutions; one of those natures inferior in delicacy perhaps, as the painter well sensed, but equal in their kindness to all that is greatest. Eurynome deserved a place in this composition. I forgot to mention that our Penelope's sleeveless tunic is blue, and that her cloak, thrown in very fine folds, is white.

Identifier: herculanumetpomp18703barr (find matches)
Title: Herculanum et Pompéi, recueil général des peintures, bronzes, mosaïques, etc., découverts jusqu'à ce jour, et reproduits d'apreès Le antichita di Ercolano, Il Museo borbonico, et tous les ouvrages analogues
Year: 1870 (1870s)
Authors: Barré, Louis, 1799-1857 Roux, H. (Henri), Sr Bouchet, Adolphe
Subjects: Art, Greco-Roman
Publisher: Paris, Firmin Didot frères, fils et cie
Contributing Library: Harold B. Lee Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Brigham Young University

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Text Appearing Before Image:
poux, aumoment où Persée emploie cet expédient. Les deux corpsdu héros et de la jeune femme, resplendissants de beauté,et leurs têtes gracieuses, que surmonte lhorrible figurede la Gorgone, forment un groupe très-heureux : onremarque particulièrement la pose naïve dAndromèdeet ses traits où le sentiment de la curiosité satisfaite semêle à une certaine terreur. Les plis de la draperie jau-nâtre de la jeune femme, comme ceux de la chlamyderouge de son époux, sont parfaitement bien entendus.On sétonnera peut-être de ne pas voir au côté de Perséeson glaive recourbé, sa terrible harpe, mais seulementune épée droite : en cela le peintre a fait preuve duneprofonde connaissance des mythes anciens; car, selonles meilleures autorités, Persée, après avoir épousé An-dromède et avoir mis Dictys sur le trône de lavare Poly-decte, rendit à Mercure ses talonnières, à Pluton soncasque, à Minerve son bouclier, et à Vulcain le glaiveappelé harpe. PEINTURES 2™e 5ene
Text Appearing After Image:
M ° B V 1 . P B ^//// J)f) s<■/,</ J/r//,/c//, DEUXIÈME SÉRIE. 15 PLANCHE 98. Le plus admirable chant de lOdyssée a fourni le sujetde ce tableau (i). Pénélope sentretient avec son Ulyssetant regretté, tant désiré, tant pleuré (n<Vrvia roôeOca),et dont labsence a flétri son pauvre cœur (çCXov y.aTar/ixo(i.at,viTop); et pourtant elle ne le reconnaît pas : car Ulysse apris lapparence et le costume dun mendiant cassé parlâge et la fatigue dune longue route : IItoj^w XeuyaXsto ivaXiyxiov, r\&l yspovxi,2xYi7TTÔ(JLevov, Ta Si Xuypà 7T£f.t jrpot stjjtara suto. Et quand Ulysse veut feindre, nul sentiment, quelquepuissant quil soit dans son cœur, ne paraît sur son vi-sage : AOxocp OSuao-eù;0<jpuo uiv yoouxiav ly)v eXeatpe yuvaixa.O^OaXjjiot 8 bbaei xspa saxaaav, y\k o(Sï)poç, Arpsuaç ev SXscpapotat, SôXw o oye oaxpua xeôôe. « Or Ulysse plaignait dans son cœur son épouse affligée ; mais ses yeuxrestaient, comme de la corne ou du fer, immobiles d

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