Artwork Page for Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry

Details / Information for Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry

Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry

1798

Charles Meynier

(French, 1768–1832)
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Culture
France, late 18th-early 19th century
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
Overall: 275 x 177 cm (108 1/4 x 69 11/16 in.)
Credit Line
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2003.6.4
Public Domain
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Location
201 French Neoclassical Painting & Sculpture
Print
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Did You Know?

Through the assistance of his brother, a famous actor of the Comédie Française, Charles Meynier studied in the studio of François André Vincent, the principal rival of the master Jacques-Louis David

Description

The eldest of the nine Greek muses, Calliope was the goddess of music, song, and dance. She was also known as the goddess of epic poetry and conferred the gift of eloquence on kings and princes. She stands here before a bust of Homer, the ancient Greek poet who wrote the Odyssey and the Iliad. This painting belongs to a cycle of five works commissioned by businessman François Boyer-Fonfréde for his home in Toulouse.
Oil painting of Calliope, a muse with light skin tone, seated with her right hand holding a board over which paper with Greek text rolls. She holds a funnel-shaped, gold trumpet in her left hand and looks to her left, brown hair billowing towards the portrait bust of a bearded man behind her. She wears a white, rippling dress, with green and blue drapery. Grey-brown rocks at her bare feet morph into a cloudy sky.

Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry

1798

Charles Meynier

(French, 1768–1832)
France, late 18th-early 19th century

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