Cool-toned paper collage of a number of black figures in a room. In the left foreground, a small, female figure spins wool; behind her a larger female figure works an upright loom. A male figure strides across the frame. Three male figures stand to the side, and a figure carrying a knife enters the room through a doorway in the back. A large window in the background frames a mountainous island and a ship with white sails.

The Return of Odysseus (Homage to Pinturicchio and Benin)

1977

Romare Howard Bearden American, 1911-1988

United States

Romare Bearden based this work on Pintoricchio’s Italian Renaissance fresco titled The Return of Odysseus, using collage to bring various physical attributes inspired by Benin masks and sculptures into the classic Greek scene. This work is based on a scene in Homer’s The Odyssey, in which Odysseus finally returns home to find that he has been presumed dead and that suitors have been trying to take Penelope, his wife, as theirs. Disguised as a pauper, Odysseus convinces Penelope that she should hold a contest to see which of the many suitors can manage her husband’s bow. Through this competition he regains her hand in marriage.

In making this collage, Bearden sought to draw a link between Odysseus’s struggles and those of all African Americans. Bearden was the leader of “Spiral,” a group of artists based in Harlem committed to the advancement of African Americans during the Civil Rights movement. Benin gained independence from French rule in 1960, less than twenty years before this collage was made. By making the faces of the characters black instead of white as in the original fresco, Bearden endeavored to draw comparisons between the struggles of the Benin people and African Americans, and used the Greek epic to underscore the commonalities of all humans.

Collage comprised of cut-and-pasted papers, with graphite and touches of brush and black and gray wash, on wood panel

Prints and Drawings

African American artists

African Diaspora