Wall ceramic decoration of the villa Mare Nostrum

Wall decoration representing Ulysses and the sirens

The second commissioned artwork is the decoration on the entrance façade back to the sea.

The theme is about the Odyssey, the return of Ulysses after the Trojan War. By boat, he has to cross the sea where the sirens are. These are nymphs whose songs bewitch the sailors and lead them to their death. Ulysses succeeds in

overtaking them by ordering his crew to cover their ears with wax He asked them to tie him to the mast of his ship. He could listening to the mermaids ‘song whithout following the call of death. Humiliated and desperate, the mermaids are said to have thrown themselves into the sea to drown.

Mermaids are depicted as women with bird bodies. Legend has it that they are three sisters. Parthenope, the one with the face of a young girl. Ligie, the one who gives a piercing cry, or who has a clear or high-pitched voice. Leucosia, the white creature

Odile proposed that the sirens be displayed separately on different parts of the facade, between two windows on the second floor, on the edge of the banister of the stairs and finally on the ascent.

The inspiration comes from the decoration of a Stamos, a Greek wine vase dating from 480-470 BC, at the British Museum in London. Odile enlarges the drawing respecting the scale with a grid. She made studies on paper of the scene and the sirens before moving on to clay modelling. The process is the same as for the fresco of the fishes. The client follows carefully the steps of her work. The final installation on the exterior walls is done with a mason and his team. The whole is original and adapted to the architecture of the villa.

The mythological theme is in harmony with the place on the shores of the Mediterranean. The material of the ceramics and the technique of painting with engobes are the same as those that were also used in Antiquity.