Telemachus and the Nymphs of Calypso
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
32 1/2 x 44 1/4 in. (82.6 x 112.4 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Collis P. Huntington, 1900
Accession Number
25.110.188
Tags
Art Historical Context
Angelica Kauffmann's *Telemachus and the Ns of Calypso* (1782) transports viewers to the mythical world of Homer's *Odyssey*. The painting captures Telemachus, son of Odysseus encountering the enchanting nymphs on the island of the goddess Calypso. Kauffmann, a pioneering female artist of the Neoclassical era and one of the first women elected to London's Royal Academy, masterfully blends classical mythology with elegant, idealized figures, evoking the grandeur of ancient Greece while reflecting Enlightenment ideals of virtue and heroism. Rendered in oil on canvas—a medium favored for its lum...
About the Artist
Angelica Kauffmann · 1741–1807
Swiss painter and etcher, and one of the few women artists of the time working in the Neo-Classical style to specialize in both portraits and subject pictures. Her famous sitters include the family of George III in Britain, Grand-Duke Paul and Prince Nikolay Yusupov in Russia, Stanislav II Poniatowski and Stanislav Kostka Potocki in Poland, Queen Caroline of Naples and Emperor Joseph II of Austria...