Perry, Walter Copland: Greek and Roman sculpture: a popular introduction to the history of Greek and Roman sculpture (London, 1882)

i68 HISTORY OF ARTISTS.

' Penelope '

(Fig- 69),

in the Galleria delle Statue of the Vatican, with which the alto rilievo
of the same subject in the Chiaramonti gallery may be compared. In
these almost identical representations, the faithful wife is sitting on
a rock. Her left arm, planted perpendicularly on her seat, supports
her sinking frame, and the right arm, resting with the elbow on her
knee, sustains the drooping head. The crossing of the legs, so un-
dignified in a woman and a heroine, serves to express dejection, and
the self-abandonment of well-nigh hopeless sorrow. The statue prob-
ably belonged to a group, of which
we get a good idea from a small relief
in the Museo Kircheriano at Rome, in
which Penelope is sitting on a four-
legged seat, with her legs crossed, and
one foot resting on a stool, under
which is her work-basket. The scene,
which is also found in tcrra-cotta
reliefs, is that related in the Odyssey,1
where the nurse Eurycleia discovers
the scar on the foot of Odysseus
which she is washing.

The general effect of this inte-
resting statue is decidedly archaic.
The hand is without anatomical de-

PENELOPE.

tails, but in other parts, and espe-
cially in the dress, the lines are free and flowing. The chief interest,
however, lies in the charming oval face, which is remarkably delicate
and refined, and expresses all those pure amiable and affectionate

1 xix. 392.