artworks4:Jean-Auguste-DominiqueIngres 1780~1867 ~TheApotheosis of Homer~ 1827Neoclassicalpainter. ~
artworks4:Jean-Auguste-DominiqueIngres 1780~1867 ~TheApotheosis of Homer~ 1827Neoclassicalpainter. ~~~~<>~~~~Thecomposition is a symmetrical grouping centered in a classical way in front ofan ancient Greek temple. The painting’s catalogue entry at the time of itsfirst exhibition described it as“Homer receiving homage from all the great men of Greece, Rome and moderntimes. The Universe crowns him, Herodotus burns incense. The Iliad and Odysseysit at his feet.” Ingres wascommissioned to paint this composition with numerous figures to decorate aceiling in the Musée Charles X in the Louvre, now the Egyptian Rooms. It wastaken down in 1855. The work, which does not betray its origin as a ceilingpainting, draws heavily on Raphael’s Parnassus. It shows a deified Homerreceiving homages from the great artists of antiquity and modern times. At hisfeet, two allegories represent the Iliad and the Odyssey.The god ofclassical art and his disciplesThe poet Homer is presentedas a god, sitting in front of a temple bearing his name on the pediment. He isbeing crowned with laurels by a Victory. Two women sitting at his feetpersonify the epics he composed. The woman bearing a sword represents the Iliad, while the woman with the oarrepresents the Odyssey. The deifiedpoet is receiving homage from forty-six great figures of antiquity and moderntimes. .The figuresfrom antiquity-painted full length and closest to Homer-include on the left thetragic poet Aeschylus holding a rollof parchment and the artist Apelleswith his brushes and palette, and on the right the poet Pindar with a lyre and the sculptor Phidias with a hammer. Only two great men of modern times, Dante and Raphael, are included in this group. The other great men of moderntimes are shown lower in the painting in half-length portraits. Most areartists from the classical period-the century of Louis XIV-such as the writers Racine, Boileau, Molière, Corneille, and La Fontaine, and the artist NicolasPoussin.Source: TheLouvre. -- source link
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