The Mourning Calypso

Angelika Kauffmannová, one of the most notable women painters of the 18th and early 19th centuries, became noted mainly due to her portraits and her work also includes many allegories, much sought after in those days, and themes from contemporary literature, historical and mythological subjects, one of which is the Calypso in Olomouc. The painter presents the nymph when Ulysses is leaving. She is standing on the sea shore and is facing the direction in which Ulysses disappeared from her sight. Passively suffering heroines, unlike stoical heroes, were not very popular in Classicist painting, in harmony with the social ideal. Kauffmannová depicts women as victims of strong emotions, who do not sacrifice themselves like the male protagonists, do not try to find escape in martyrdom, and therefore are little capable of expressing the grandour of their grief.