Calliope Mourning Homer

At the center of this palatial setting, the muse of epic poetry sings and strums her lyre to honor Homer, the deceased, recumbent bard. Interest in the legend of Homer’s life and works reached an apogee during the French Revolution and continued to be a popular subject for neoclassical artists throughout the nineteenth century. This composition is inspired by Greek imagery honoring heroes, and the bas-relief in the background reproduces a scene from a section of the Parthenon frieze that entered the Musée du Louvre’s collection in 1798. The disposition of the figures recalls those in David’s 1783 painting Andromache Mourning Hector, which features an episode from the Trojan Wars that was narrated in many ancient texts, including Homer’s Iliad. That painting had earned David full membership in the French Academy, and its structure was often echoed in his students’ work.