1670
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Mercury Orders Calypso to Allow Ulysses Depart is a 1670 by Gerard de Lairesse, a Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A messenger in a winged hat points at a sad woman while a bearded man watches from a cloud. The scene is set in a grand stone hall with columns and a view of the sea. This painting shows the moment the gods step in to free Odysseus from Calypso’s island. De Lairesse painted it like a French stage set—smooth, dramatic, and full of perfect-looking bodies. He brought that polished style to the Netherlands, where most art was cozier and more everyday. To see how Dutch artists usually handled myths, look up *Rembrandt*.
In Homer’s Odyssey , Odysseus spends seven years captive to the nymph Calypso. Despite Calypso’s charms, Odysseus longed to return home to his family. In this composition, De Lairesse depicts the moment when the Olympian gods intervene, sending Hermes to release Odysseus from Calypso’s captivity. The Dutch De Lairesse brought French artistic taste to the Netherlands, reflected here in the firmly modeled, idealized figures and classical architecture.
A painting by this artist of the same subject is also in the museum’s collection (see 1992.2).
Read the full account in the museum source.
Gerard or Gérard (de) Lairesse (French pronunciation: ; 11 September 1641 – June 1711) was a Dutch Golden Age painter and art theorist.
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