Hermes guiding Odysseus on the island of Aeaea

A god has just dropped out of the sky, and Odysseus is getting instructions. This is the moment from Book 10 of the Odyssey when Hermes, recognisable by his winged cap and floating cloak, intercepts the hero on the island of Aeaea. Odysseus's crew have been turned into pigs by the sorceress Circe, whose villa sits on the hill in the upper right, and he is marching off to confront her. Hermes points the way and, more importantly, presses a plant into his hand: moly, a herb with a black root and a white flower that will make Circe's potion useless. Down at the shore on the left you can spot the tiny ship that brought the crew here, along with a lone figure keeping watch.

Giuseppe Bottani painted this in eighteenth-century Italy, working in a tradition that goes back to Claude Lorrain: a wide golden landscape with small figures acting out a story from myth or scripture. The trees on either side act like stage curtains, the light comes from a hazy sea in the middle distance, and the drama plays out in a clearing that feels more like a park than a wild island. Bottani spent much of his career in Rome and later ran the art academy in Mantua, and paintings like this were popular with collectors who wanted classical learning and pleasant scenery in the same frame. The scarlet cloak swirling around Odysseus is the one flash of real heat in an otherwise cool green and blue picture.