Subjects from Homer's Iliad in Neoclassical Art

Abstract

Scenes from Homer's Iliad are occasionally found in Italian art of the late fifteenth century. They became extremely popular in the second half of the eighteenth century and as suddenly died away again in the nineteenth. Indeed, of over three hundred illustrations of Iliad subjects compiled for this article, less than forty belong to the entire period 1470–1750, while there are well over two hundred in the years between 1750–18255 the small remainder belong to the later years of the nineteenth century. These illustrations can be generally placed in three categories: allegorical, in which the subject has a didactic purpose; narrative-pictorial, in which the subject is chosen primarily for its scenic qualities; and literal, in which accuracy of representation of specific Iliad episodes is most important. In general, illustrations prior to 1700 represent the first category, those from 1700 to 1750 the second, and those done after 1750 the third, while, with the exception of a few belated Neoclassical artists such as Thorwaldsen and Bonaventura Genelli, the movement appears to draw to a close in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. After this date the Homeric epics become one of a number of texts on which to draw for local historical color, and are no longer the concern of this paper.