Malgorzata Kedzierska, Beata Berent APOLLONIO DI GIOVANNI
AND MARCO DEL BUONO This picture is made in the technique of tempera on wood and was gilded. It was conserved in 1997 by Zofia Kaszowska. Purchased by Karol Lanckoronski in 1890 from Bardini in Florence it adorned in the Italian room of his Viennese palace. The subject matter here is a pictorial narration of the scenes from Homer's Odyssey. From the left side: Odysseus listens to the singing of the sirens, Hermes approaches Calypso, Calypso watches Odysseus building a raft, Leucothea helps the shipwrecked Odysseus, Nausica takes Odysseus to the palace of her father, Odysseus is the guest of Alcinous, Odysseus returns to Ithaca and meets his dog Argos, Penelope at a loom, Eurycleia recognizes Odysseus, and Odysseus and Telemachus rout the suitors. The panel with adventures of Odysseus is the richest illustration of the Odyssey in early Italian painting. The picture is distinctive of the lively course of action taking place on several panels in a panorama of the route of Odysseus journey. Lanckoronski dated it in the fourth decade of 15th century and identified the scenes depicted therein. In style of Apollonio di Giovanni - the treatment of figures, light palette and handling of landscape – Callmann (a monographer of that artist) discerns the influences of Pesellino, Filippo Lippi, Paolo Uccello and Domenico Veneziano. |