Jan Styka, ODYSEUS AND CHARYBDA

77.5 x 57.6 cm - oil, pencil, cardboard signed (in Greek alphabet) l.d.: Jan Styka

On the back l.g. sticker (in ink): Ulysse échappe a Charybde;

p.g., opposite composition (in blue crayon): son naufrage;

p.d. (in pencil): Ulysse échappe a Charybde.



The featured painting is one of a series of 83 or 85 (according to some accounts) paintings painted by Styka as illustrations to Homer's Odyssey. It illustrates the end of the twelfth song, in which Odysseus, having lost his entire crew and ship, drifts on its remains directly into the maw of Charybde swallowing the sea.

There is a fig tree from the rock overhung, Beneath it the menacing Charybdis swallows the salty sea; Thrice in the day she casts it out, thrice she draws it in. And when it drags in, oh! may you not be there! Already would not even Poseidon himself be able to save you. (...) With a thunderbolt Zeus fell into the ship with a clatter; the shaking From top to bottom you could feel in the ship, The same sulfur smell. All of the team swept from the platform, fell into the sea; scrambling climbs, And again plunges, as if sea crows. God did not let them return, their life is over! I ran around the ship, until the great idol did not tear off the ribs to the underside of the seasoned beam, Which rocked by itself, until the mast tree fell on her. I saw the raw material rope at the mast, I tied the mast and the frame together, I got into the okrak, and gave myself over to the swelling waves. Soon the westerly wind lost its fierce momentum, But on the other hand the Not broke; I was overwhelmed with unspeakable fear, lest I should fall into the bottomless vortex of Charybda. So I swam all night, until the daylight did not discover Charybda here, and here the rocks of Scylla. Charybdis was swallowing the salty sea at the moment, What seeing, I stung myself with a fig branch. Clung to it like a bat, I could not from the vishar Rest my feet or relieve my body of course, Because the roots far away, and the branches clusters Went up - the whole quiver was shaded by a fig. So I hung on waiting, until the whirlwind howled for the return of the frame, and I waited just impatiently and long, like one who was judging among the youth gathered in the agora And hungry hurried home at evening time: So much passed before the frame the cradle threw away. So having gathered myself into a heap, I leaped what strength I had, And fell just beside the timbers that the water carried; And having mounted them, I used my hands for oars. But Skyllim met no more - oh thank you, gods! Otherwise I would never have escaped a harsh death. Thus I toiled nine days, until on the tenth night I came to Ogygia with divine help, Where dwells the beautiful-haired Calypso, the goddess.

(Homer, The Odyssey, translated by Lucyan Siemieński, Warsaw 1895, pp. 272, 283-285)



Styka painted the entire series from 1911, at which time - together with his sons - he went on a journey in the footsteps of Odysseus to prepare the necessary sketches and collect materials. In 1923, the artist showed 44 canvases from the series at the Paris Spring Salon at the Grand Palais. In 1930-31, Jan Styka presented as many as 51 canvases from the Odyssey series at the Styka family's circular exhibition, which was presented in Warsaw, Lodz, Katowice, Krakow, Lvov, Poznan and Gdansk.

The 80 paintings served as illustrations for the luxurious six-volume edition of Odyssée d'Homere par Jan Styka, which in an edition of 500 numbered pieces was published in Paris between 1922 and 1927. The edition was enthusiastically received, and the artist was honored with the Cross of the Legion of Honor. Reviewers - with exaggerated admiration and pathos wrote, among other things, that it is now impossible to separate the name of Homer from that of Jan Styka, and that the artist's paintings are the most beautiful commentary on the Odyssey, and whoever from now on would like to read with understanding the work of the divine Homer, must read it with eyes gazing at Styka's work.

Jan Styka (Lviv 1858 - Rome 1925) - popular painter of historical and battle scenes, author of allegorical and religious paintings, portraitist, father of painters Tadeusz and Adam Styka. He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, then in Rome, and from 1882-1885 with Jan Matejko at the School of Fine Arts in Cracow. After his studies, he spent several years in Paris and later lived in Lviv. In 1895 he traveled to Palestine. After 1900 he lived permanently in Paris, from where he traveled to the United States, Italy and Greece. A participant in many exhibitions, including the Paris Salons and the World Exhibition in St. Louis (1904), he enjoyed considerable popularity and even fame. He was a member of the Academy of St. Luke in Rome. He was also the originator and co-author of famous panoramas - Panorama of the Battle of Raclawice (1892-1894; exhibited permanently in Wroclaw today; together with W. Kossak and others), Golgotha (1896; now in Los Angeles), Panorama of Transylvania (1897; cut into parts, only fragments remain), and Martyrdom of Christians in Nero's Circus (1899; canvas lost during World War I). He was involved in illustration, including preparing illustrations for a luxury edition of Quo vadis? Sienkiewicz.