Böcklin’s original training as a landscape painter shines through in this unconventional interpretation of an episode from the ancient Greek epic poem the Odyssey. Crashing waves meet jagged rocks in a spray and scurry of foam. Escaping from the island of the Cyclopes—one-eyed, ill-tempered giants—the hero Odysseus calls back to the shore, taunting the Cyclops Polyphemus, who heaves a boulder after the boat. Unlike Academic colleagues who treated ancient mythology with reverence and solemnity, Böcklin often played up strange, grotesque, and even ridiculous elements of these stories, conjuring a pre-Classical world governed by violence and lust.
A. von der Mühll-Bachofen, Basel (acquired in 1896) Mrs. A. von der Mühll-Bachofen, Basel (widow of the above, by 1927) Mrs. Fürstenberger-von der Mühll, Rheinfelden (by descent from the above by 1938) Kunsthandlung Schulthess, Basel Private Collection, Arlesheim, near Basel (by 1968) Acquired by the present owner circa 2000
Exhibition history
Basel, Kunsthalle, Böcklin-Jubiläums-Ausstellung, 1897, no. 84 Basel, Kunsthalle, Böcklin-Ausstellung, 1917, no. 123 Basel, Kunsthalle, Böcklin: Ausstellung zum Gedächtnis an seinen 50. Todestag, 1951, no. 121 Basel, Kunsthalle, Arnold Böcklin, Gemälde, Zeichnungen, Plastiken. Ausstellung zum 150. Geburtstag, 1977, no. 195 Darmstadt, Mathildenhöhe, Arnold Böcklin, Ausstellung zum 150. Geburtstag, 1977, no. 81
Credit line
Museum purchase with funds by exchange from the Gift of Laurence K. and Lorna J. Marshall
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
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Captions
Odysseus and Polyphemus (1896). Oil and tempera on panel, 66 cm × 150 cm (26 in × 59 in). Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
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