Artwork Page for Hermes Ordering Calypso to Release Odysseus

Details / Information for Hermes Ordering Calypso to Release Odysseus

Hermes Ordering Calypso to Release Odysseus

c. 1670
(Flemish, 1641–1711)
Measurements
Framed: 118.5 x 140 x 9 cm (46 5/8 x 55 1/8 x 3 9/16 in.); Unframed: 91.4 x 113.7 cm (36 x 44 3/4 in.)
Public Domain
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Calypso, reclining on her bed, looks at us with the same charming smile she used on Odysseus.

Description

The Greek goddess Calypso held the hero Odysseus captive for seven years, preventing his return home from the Trojan War. Despite Calypso’s charms and the luxurious surroundings, Odysseus longed for his home and family, so the Olympian gods finally allowed his freedom. Here, the god Hermes swoops down to free Odysseus from Calypso’s embrace. De Lairesse, popularly known as the “Dutch Poussin,” introduced to the Netherlands a classicizing style influenced by artists of the French Academy.
A horizontally oriented oil painting is crowded with people with light skin tones, at the center of which a nude woman looks out at us, reclining on a bed alongside a man wearing crimson red robes. The man looks up at Hermes, a god wearing a winged helmet and leaning down from clouds in which more gods gather. Nude, winged children scatter around the scene. At left, a helmet-wearing child smiles at us.

Hermes Ordering Calypso to Release Odysseus

c. 1670

Gerard de Lairesse

(Flemish, 1641–1711)
Netherlands

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