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Source Description
The old man honored by a laurel wreath is Homer, the greatest poet of antiquity, identified by the inscription on the sheet of paper with the names of the cities that claimed Homer as a native. This imaginary portrait (no one knows what he looked like) is not so much a celebration of the author of the early Greek epic poems- The Iliad and The Odyssey- but of the fame that a poet could achieve.This splendid painting is dated but not signed. The forceful modeling suggests a Flemish painter influenced by Caravaggio (Italian, 1571-1610).
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
35475
label
Idealized Portrait of the Poet Homer
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
citationUrl
pageCount
2
Source metadata
id
35475
sourceUrl
contentType
drawing
stage
normalized
title
Idealized Portrait of the Poet Homer
description
The old man honored by a laurel wreath is Homer, the greatest poet of antiquity, identified by the inscription on the sheet of paper with the names of the cities that claimed Homer as a native. This imaginary portrait (no one knows what he looked like) is not so much a celebration of the author of the early Greek epic poems- The Iliad and The Odyssey- but of the fame that a poet could achieve.This splendid painting is dated but not signed. The forceful modeling suggests a Flemish painter influenced by Caravaggio (Italian, 1571-1610).
provenance
Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
date
1639 (Baroque)
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Painting & Drawing
paintings
imageCount
2
pageCount
2
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
72.1
height
56.8
dimensionsRaw
H: 28 3/8 x W: 22 3/8 in. (72.1 x 56.8 cm)
Source extras
inscriptions
Dated lower left.
med
oil on panel
creator_ids
6505
collection_ids
BAR
exhibition_ids
none
Page inventory
seq
1
type
photo
mediaId
c1025acdbaafbf3d
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
2
type
photo
mediaId
5878b7536c212a44
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no