Penelope at Her Loom

Angelica Kauffmann painted Penelope at Her Loom around 1764, an early Neoclassical composition depicting the Homeric heroine's famous stratagem of weaving and unraveling a shroud to delay her suitors during Odysseus's absence. The subject was a standard Neoclassical vehicle for the depiction of faithful female virtue — Penelope's fidelity as the counterpart to Odysseus's heroism — and Kauffmann's treatment places the weaving figure at the loom with the dignified concentration appropriate to the most celebrated faithful wife in Western literature. The work demonstrates her early command of classical subject matter within the compositional language of the emerging Neoclassical movement.

The young Kauffman demonstrates her early command of classical composition, with Penelope seated at her loom in a dignified domestic setting. The painting shows the influence of her Italian training in its balanced composition and warm, soft coloring.