The Blind Homer
Artist: Claude Michel, called Clodion (French, 1738-1814)
Date: 1810
Dimensions:
H: 23 1/8 in. (58.7 cm); Base W: 16 13/16 in. (42.7 cm); Base Depth: 10 7/8 in. (27.6 cm); Depth (with Homer's left hand and youth's left foot):14 3/4 in. (37.5 cm)
Medium: Bronze
Classification: Sculpture
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott
Object number: 1976.2
Label Text:Though better known for lighthearted fantasies in terracotta like The See-Saw (in this gallery), Clodion was influenced late in his career by the prevailing Neoclassical style and its depictions of sober scenes from Greek and Roman history and myth. Here Clodion represents a passage from the Life of Homer, an ancient biography of the man believed to have written The Iliad and The Odyssey. The blind Homer, abandoned by fishermen on a Greek island, is attacked by dogs guarding a herd of goats. The goatherd Glaucus fights off the vicious dogs, rescuing the great poet.
On view
In Collection(s)