The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of July 9, 2025
Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry
1798
(French, 1768–1832)
Overall: 275 x 177 cm (108 1/4 x 69 11/16 in.)
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 DavidDescription
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.- Before entering the collection, this entire suite of five monumental paintings by Charles Meynier had numerous conservation issues, including pronounced discolored varnish, years of accumulated grime, and canvases that were detaching from their stretchers, creating large buckles along the edges. The CMA designed a four-year-long comprehensive conservation campaign to address these concerns, which involved removing the grime, reducing the discolored varnish, flattening buckles and undulations in the canvas, followed by inpainting mainly to compensate for pronounced traction cracking in the original paint layers. Traction cracking occurs when the top layers of paint dry faster than the underlayers, creating breaks in the top layers, revealing the underlying preparatory layers that were not intended to be seen. Horizontal cracking at regular intervals is present in each painting and is likely caused by rolling the canvases to transport them to the Castella chateau in Wallenreid, Switzerland, where the paintings remained until the CMA purchased them in 2003. Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry displayed the most traction cracking, notably in the green drapery. This area received extensive inpainting within the cracking with reversible conservation grade paint to produce a more unified image. The exquisitely carved gold leaf frames are original to the paintings.
- In 1819, Nicolas-Antoine de Castella, general of the Swiss regiments in France, purchased the paintings and placed them in his Castle of Wallenreid, Switzerland; direct descendants; Pierre de Castella, Mannaz, Switzerland.
- Bellenger, Sylvain, Paul J. and Edith Ingalls Vignos Jr. "Magnificent Muses", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 44 no. 01, January 2004 Mentioned & reproduced: p.6-7 archive.org
- {{cite web|title=Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry|url=false|author=Charles Meynier|year=1798|access-date=09 July 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2003.6.4