'THE APOTHEOSIS OF HOMER'
[PLATE X]
In 1826, after his return from his first sojourn in Italy, Ingres was commissioned by the French government to decorate the ceiling of one of the galleries of the Louvre. For his subject the artist took 'The Apotheosis of Homer,' and in his treatment of the theme achieved what is regarded as his finest work in composition of the grand style.
Before the entrance to an Ionic temple, Homer, the blind Greek poet, is seated, like Jupiter, scepter in hand, upon a gilded throne. A winged figure of Victory, clad in rose-color, crowns him with a wreath of laurel, and on either side are grouped the most illustrious artists, poets, and musicians of all time. Here is Apelles leading Raphael by the hand; Æschylus presenting a scroll on which his tragedies are written; Phidias with his mallet; Pindar holding his lyre; Plato, Socrates, Horace, Virgil, and Dante, and, farther down, Shakespeare, Tasso, Corneille, Poussin, Gluck, Mozart, Racine, Molière, Fénelon, and others, while on the steps at Homer's feet, personified as the poet's daughters, are seated the 'Iliad' and the 'Odyssey.' The first is at the left, clad in red, and with Achilles' sword beside her; the other, enveloped in a sea-green mantle, is shown in profile, holding across her knee the oar of Ulysses.
In the loftiness of its style and the purity of its lines, 'The Apotheosis of Homer' is one of the noblest examples of the classic school of painting. Although it cannot be called in any way a copy of Raphael, it is evident that in painting it Ingres had in mind the 'Parnassus' and the 'School of Athens' (see Masters in Art, Vol. 4, Part 40), those grand creations of the painter whom he regarded as superior to all others.
A copy by his pupils now occupies the place of Ingres' great ceiling decoration. The original picture is exhibited in one of the rooms of the Louvre, where it is seen to better advantage. The figures are life-sized, and the canvas measures more than twelve feet high by nearly seventeen feet wide.
A LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL PAINTINGS BY INGRES
WITH THEIR PRESENT LOCATIONS
BELGIUM. Brussels, Museum: Virgil reading the Æneid (study)—Liège, Museum: Napoleon Bonaparte as First Consul—ENGLAND. London, South Kensington Museum, Ionides Collection: Henry iv. and the Spanish Ambassador; Sleeping Odalisque—FRANCE. Aix, Museum: Jupiter and Thetis; Portrait of the Painter Granet—Angers, Museum: Francesca da Rimini—Autun, Cathedral: The Martyrdom of St. Symphorien—Chantilly, Condé Museum: Portrait of Madame Devauçay (Plate ix); Portrait of Ingres; Stratonice; Francesca da Rimini; Venus Anadyomene—Dampierre, Château of the Duke of Luynes: The Iron Age and The Golden Age (two unfinished mural paintings)—Montauban, Museum: Jesus among the Doctors; Ossian's Dream; Portrait of Ingres' Father; Portrait of Belvèze; Portrait of a Man—Montauban, Cathedral: The Vow of Louis xiii. (Plate viii)—Montpellier, Museum: Portrait of Desdebans; Stratonice; Oil Studies for 'Jesus among the Doctors; and 'The Apotheosis of Homer'—Nantes, Museum: Portrait of Madame de Senonnes (Plate ii)—Paris, Louvre: Christ giving the Keys of Heaven to St. Peter; The Apotheosis of Homer (Plate x); Œdipus and the Sphinx (Plate i); 'La Source' (Plate vi); The Virgin of the Host; Jeanne d'Arc at the Coronation of Charles vii.; Roger liberating Angelica; The Large Odalisque; The Bather; Portrait of M. Bertin (Plate vii); Portrait of Cherubini; Portrait of M. Cordier; Portraits of M. and Mme. Rivière; Portrait of Mlle. Rivière; Portrait of M. Bochet—Paris, École des Beaux-arts: Romulus victorious over Acron, King of the Sabines; The Ambassadors of Agamemnon in the Tent of Achilles—Paris, Hôtel des Invalides: Portrait of Napoleon Bonaparte—Paris, Théatre Français: Louis xiv. and Molière—Paris, Collection Of M. Degas: Portraits of M. and Mme. Leblanc—Perpignan, Museum: Portrait of the Duke of Orleans (repetition of the one at Versailles)—Rouen, Museum: 'La belle Zélie'—Toulouse, Museum: Virgil reading the Æneid—Versailles, Palace: Portrait of the Duke of Orleans—ITALY, Florence, Uffizi Gallery: Portrait of Ingres (see page 274)—Rome, Quirinal Palace: Ossian's Dream—Rome, Villa Miollis: Virgil reading the Æneid—RUSSIA, St. Petersburg, Imperial Collections: The Virgin of the Host—SWITZERLAND. Coppet, Château: Portrait of the Comtesse d'Haussonville.