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Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry
Charles Meynier (French, 1768–1832)
1798
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Overall: 275 x 177 cm (108 1/4 x 69 11/16 in.)
- Culture
- France, late 18th-early 19th century
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
The eldest of the nine Greek muses, Calliope was the goddess of music, song, and dance. She was also known as the goddess of epic poetry and conferred the gift of eloquence on kings and princes. She stands here before a bust of Homer, the ancient Greek poet who wrote the Odyssey and the Iliad. This painting belongs to a cycle of five works commissioned by businessman François Boyer-Fonfréde for his home in Toulouse.
