Folding fan with double paper leaf, painted in gouache on the front with a combination of scenes from the Odyssey of Homer and on the back Zephyrus holding a floral wreath above Flora, on an ivory mount pierced and carved in relief

By dividing the image on the front of this fan into three parts, an ingenious attempt has been made to combine a number of scenes from Homer's Odyssey (ca. 800?-ca. 750 BC) into one whole. In the middle, the gods decide, at the intercession of Athena, that the nymph Calypso must let Odysseus go so that he can return to Ithaca (I:1-94). On the left, a desperate Calypso finds the Odysseus consumed by grief and pleading on the rocks by the sea and must tell him that she will let him depart on the orders of the gods (V:151). On the right, a landscape, probably representing Ithaca. The choice of subject is exceptional, as in the 17th and 18th centuries in the Netherlands there was little interest in the Odyssey and consequently few depictions of it. (Cf. G. Lairesse, Odysseus and Calypso, 1682, Rijksmuseum, inv. A211) The central image on the sheet on the back is taken from the work of the poet Ovid (43 BC-18 AD), who was very popular at the beginning of the 18th century.