Pintoricchio, 'Penelope with the Suitors', about 1509
The woman at the loom is Penelope, wife of Odysseus, the hero of Homer's 'Odyssey'. During Odysseus’s absence Penelope is besieged by suitors. She refuses to consider their advances until she has finished weaving a shroud. At night she unpicks what she weaves by day.
Southern Road Primary School, London
5–6 year olds
Pupils worked with their parents at home to decide what would best represent their family on a crest. At school, some children had a go at creating appliqué shields using felt.
Farringtons School, Chislehurst
10–11 year olds
After hearing the story of Penelope in 'The Odyssey', the conversation led to boats, shipwrecks, and treasure... and the treasure chest idea was born! It belonged to Penelope and contained all her favourite things.
Sacred Heart RC Primary School, Teddington
9–10 year olds
As a class we looked at different types of fabric and used them to make pictures. We decided to create our own felt to show parts of the story in 'The Odyssey.'
Glendower Prep School, London
9–10 year olds
The pupils each designed a flag that would represent their chosen Italian region. They presented their final design, explaining to their classmates the symbols and colours they had used and why.
Bilton Church of England Junior School, Rugby
10–11 year olds
We learned about the sweetheart pins that soldiers gave to their wives and girlfriends during the First and Second World Wars. We focussed on their symbolism, and we designed one specifically for the character of Penelope in 'The Odyssey'.
Caroline Chisholm School, Northamptonshire
10–11 year olds
The children’s artwork expresses places seen on their own voyages and incorporates new techniques learnt, such as using modroc (plaster of Paris bandages).
Wells Cathedral Junior School, Somerset
7–8 year olds
Year 3 focussed on the cat and chequered floor in Pintoricchio's painting. They investigated board games with chequered patterns. In pairs they designed and made different chess pieces based on cat characters they had researched.
Wells Cathedral Junior School, Somerset
8–9 year olds
The students looked beyond the surface of Pintoricchio's painting, finding many small stories within the bigger frame and attempted to bring these smaller elements to life through printmaking workshops.
Kingswood Primary School, Gloucestershire
5–11 year olds
We looked at the flags representing the different districts in Siena where Pintoricchio mainly worked. We created flags for each of our school houses for a celebration of our school’s 125th anniversary.
Parsonage Farm Nursery and Infant School, Hampshire
4–7 year olds
We invited a local weaver to show the children what Penelope was doing in Pintoricchio's painting and teach them how to do it. The wools used had been hand-dyed by the children in colours that were in the painting.
Cleveland Road Primary School, Ilford
5–6 year olds
The children analysed facial features, expressions, skin tones and hairstyles; they compared various portrait styles. They tried hard to convey the emotions Penelope from 'The Odyssey' might be feeling and experimented with oil pastels.
The Paragon Junior School, Somerset
8–9 year olds
The children developed seascapes by drawing sail boats, experimenting with blue mixes, and using maps of Cornwall as their backgrounds. The idea of connecting locations across maps with woven and sewn lines came from a discussion about journey lines in indigenous Australian art.
St Faith’s C.E Primary School, Hampshire
9–10 year olds
As weaving is a central part of 'The Odyssey', the children decided to tell stories through their own weaving. On top of the weaving, they stitched clues from the story. The children worked in pairs and built their own frames.
Baring Primary School, London
6–7 year olds
During a drama lesson the children pretended to be the sailors from 'The Odyssey' who were terrified of the Sirens. The children used photos to paint self-portraits posing as the terrified seafarers.
St Christopher’s School, London
10–11 year olds
Year 6 created their own boats that could set sail on epic adventures across the seas using willow withies, tape, and wire.
Grafton School, London
8–9 year olds
Year 4 were particularly curious about what a fresco was. Experiments were set up and the children drew, painted, and inscribed words onto prepared areas of modroc and plaster slabs.
Limespring School, London
7–10 year olds
The children used a wide variety of materials and learnt a range of new techniques to create mystical creatures inspired by Pintoricchio’s painting. Limespring is a school for children with specific learning differences such as dyslexia and dyspraxia.
Limespring School, London
7–10 year olds
Inspired by the mythical creatures in Pintoricchio's painting, the children made Sirens. They gained new clay modelling skills about and learnt about the process of applying coloured slip, drying the clay, and firing it in the kiln.
Carterhatch Junior School, London
9–10 year olds
Anderson class recognised that the character of Penelope, with all her Suitors, was in a position of power and had choices. The children were interested to learn about other women in history who affected change in their lifetime.
