TIBALDI, Pellegrino
(b. 1527, Puria (Valsolda), d. 1596, Milano)

Theft of the Cattle of Helios (scene 6)

1550-51
Fresco
Stanza di Ulisse, Palazzo Poggi, Bologna

The story started in the Sala di Ulisse with five scenes, continues above the entry wall in the Stanza di Ulisse. Odysseus is sleeping and his half-starved companions storm the countryside and steal and slaughter the holy cattle of the sun god.

An interesting detail of the fresco: a Greek in the foreground looks out and asks us to be quiet so that Odysseus does not wake. His facial expression is a variation on that of a damned man in Michelangelo's Last Judgment fresco in the Vatican.