Ulysses and Nausicaa, Guido Reni

Ulysses and Nausicaa, Guido Reni 1575-1642

Ulysses receiving the clothing from Nausicaa is well and graphically portrayed by Guido Reni, in a picture which now hangs in Naples. The king's daughter sits upon a sort of outdoor throne, surrounded by her maidens. She is really lovely, not in the least affected and not rolling her eyes about in any direction, as Guide's ladies nearly always do. Ulysses is seen nude, at the left, singularly free from embarrassment in the face of the group of women. He is well-painted and handsome, wearing a pointed beard. He is almost Assyrian in type. The " wash " is hanging on a line near by, for this happened to be the day when Nausicaa and her maidens had been attending to the laundry department, by the river's bank. Nausicaa holds in her hand a little bat of flat wood, such as is used in ping-pong to-day. The women had been playing ball when interrupted by the advent of the denuded stranger. This picture of Guido Reni's is among the most interesting that he painted, and is hardly as familiar as it deserves to be. Julia de Wolf Addison

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