Italian, late 18th century, After the Antique

Private collection, France

The present bust depicts the Greek poet Homer, credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that were foundational to ancient Greek literature. Many varied accounts of the author’s life circulated in classical antiquity. The most prominent and widely believed narrative describes Homer as a blind bard from Anatolia (present day Turkey). The legend of his blindness may have been encouraged by the fact that the Odyssey features a blind and extraordinary poet named Demodocus, a feature which is prominent in the present bust which depicts the author’s eyes without distinctly carved pupils.

The bust shares similarities with a famed Roman copy of the lost 2nd-century B.C. Greek original. Surviving examples can be found in the British Museum, London (inv. no. 1805,0703.85), the Louvre, Paris (inv. no. MR 530), and the Capitoline Museums, Rome (inv. no. MC 0557). The model continued to be popular centuries later with the Grand Tourists of the eighteenth century who were fascinated by the sculpture of classical antiquity. An eighteenth-century bust of Homer by Francis Harwood, a sculptor mostly known for undertaking commissions for British visitors on the Grand Tour, is held at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. A.8-1958).