The Blind Homer

Artist Claude Michel, called Clodion (French, 1738-1814)

Place of OriginFrance

Date1810

DimensionsH: 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)

MediumBronze

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Florence Scott Libbey Bequest in Memory of her Father, Maurice A. Scott

Object number

1976.2

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 26, Rotunda

Label TextThough 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.Published References"Treasures for Toledo;" Toledo Museum of Art, Museum News, vol. 19, nos. 2 & 3, 1976, p. 71, repr.

Poulet, Anne L. and Guilhem Scherf, Clodion 1738-1814, Paris, 1992, p. 71, 311, 336, 361, fig. 43, p. 71.

Scherf, Guilhem, "Homère mordu par les chiens de Clodion (1738-1814); une oeuvre inèdite retrouvèe," Revue du Louvre, vol. 43, no. 3, June 1993, pp. 54-60, fig. 5 & 6, p. 57.

Moormann, Eric M., "'There is a triple sight in blindness keen': Representations of Homer in Modern Times II," in Larinois, A.P.M.H., et al. (eds.), Land of Dreams: Greek and Latin Studies in Honour of A.H.M. Kessels, Leiden, Brill, 2006, pp. 243-245, p. 244, fig. 6.