The Apotheosis of Homère

the Apotheosis of Homère is a large fabric of Dominique Ingres exposed to the Musée of Louvre.

This fabric completed in 1827 decorated a ceiling with the museum Charles X in Louvre (current Egyptian rooms). One descended it there in 1855 and one replaced it the same year by a copy due to the artists Paul and Raymond Balze (in collaboration with Michel Dumas).

The booklet of the table to the catalog of the time described the fabric thus: “Homère receives the homage of all the great men of the Greece, Rome and modern times. The Universe crowns it, Hérodote made smoke Encens. Iliade and the Odyssey are has its feet.”

Ingres worked with this work, by which he wanted to compete with Raphaël, in the most meticulous way as testify some more than hundred drawings in which one sees it specifying little by little the ordinance and the details of his table. The composition of a symmetrical grouping and “is centered” with the traditional manner. The drawing reached there very an high level of precision. The clear colors, very fraiches and, were to give an impression of fresco.

This work with the many characters, which is a kind of traditional profession of faith, and which in its kind is very successful, however leaves an impression of coldness. One feels too much intellectual research there, not enough of spontaneousness and emotion.

Random links: