Portrait of the poet Homer (perhaps born c. 750 BC)
British (English) School
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
c. 1810 - 1830
Materials
Plaster
Measurements
65 x 45 cm
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk
NT 852220
Summary
Sculpture, plaster; portrait of the poet Homer (perhaps born c. 750 BC); after an antique model; London, c. 1810-30. This is one of four busts in the Library at Ickworth that were probably supplied around the time of the installation in 1829, by the firm of Banting, France and Co., of a set of tall rosewood bookcases. The four busts depict historical, literary and political figures from the ancient world: Alexander the Great, the Greek orator Demosthenes, the poet Homer and the Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero. The four busts are all different in form and facture so are not the products of a single workshop. The Greek poet Homer is presumed to be the author of the two long epic poems the Iliad and the Odyssey. These foundational works of ancient Greek literature recount respectively the stories of the Trojan Wars and the return from Troy to his home on the island of Ithaca of Odysseus (Ulysses). Almost nothing is known about Homer, who is generally thought to have been blind and a bardic figure, who might have travelled between royal courts, where he would have recited the poems, before they were ever written down. The bust is a cast of a marble portrait bust of Homer in the British Museum.
Full description
A portrait bust in plaster depicting the poet Homer (born c. 750 BC), heavily bearded and with a headband (mitra) across his forehead, facing to his front. His brows are furrowed and his eyes slightly pursed, reminding the viewer that Homer is reputed to have been blind. Dressed in a loose chiton tunic, the bust squared. Mounted on circular socle. The portrait depicts the Greek poet Homer, the presumed author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Almost nothing is known about Homer, who is most commonly thought to have been born and lived in or near the Greek island of Chios, but no fewer than seven cities have claimed to have been his birthplace. It is by no means certain that Homer wrote the two famous epic poems credited to him and indeed many scholars believe they were written by different authors, perhaps as much as a century apart. It is generally agreed though that both texts originated as oral and unwritten poetic works, that were only written down later. The description in the Odyssey of a blind bard in the service of local kings perhaps give some idea of how the poems were originally delivered. It also probably gave rise to the notion that Homer too was blind. The Ickworth portrait is a cast from the bust of the poet in herm form in the British Museum, which entered the collections of the museum from the Townley Collection in 1805 (Inv. 1805,0703.85; Cook 1985, pp. 35-37, fig. 33). The Townley head is a Roman copy of the most common Hellenistic depiction of the poet, which probably originated in the 2nd century BC and shows the poet heavily bearded and with large vacant eyes, that hint at his blindness. The most famous example of this model is the bust in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in n Naples (Inv. 6023), which was much reproduced in the later eighteenth century in the workshops of the sculptor Carlo Albacini (1734-1813); there is for example a plaster version by Albacini among the large collection of casts from his workshop in the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh. The Naples herm shows the poet wearing a chiton tunic, whereas in the British Museum version his bust is bare. Other casts from the British Museum’s Homer in National Trust collections are at Florence Court (NT 631309.3) and Wallington (NT 584966) whilst, among copies after the Naples herm, are those at Stourhead (NT 562909), Sheringham (NT 800415.2, signed by Francis Hardenberg) and Hatchlands (NT 1166749, made in the Naples foundry of Sabatino de Angelis). Busts of Homer were of course often, along with portraits of later writers, often placed in libraries. The portrait of Homer at Ickworth is one of four busts of ancient literary or historic figures that, with the probable exception of the Cicero, were probably acquired specifically to sit atop the enormous rosewood bookcases supplied in 1829 for the new Library by the firm of Banting, France and Co. The other busts depict Alexander the Great (NT 852218), the orator Demosthenes (NT 852219) and Marcus Tullius Cicero (NT 852221). The busts are quite disparate as regards their socles and, so far as can be seen from below, their modelling. So they are very unlikely to have been made as a set, or even in the same workshops. The choice of subjects suggests some forethought, Demosthenes and Cicero representing the power of language, as well as politics, in the ancient Greek and Roman worlds respectively. Alexander the Great and Homer on the other hand stand for the twin powers of history and literature. Jeremy Warren November 2025
Provenance
Part of the Bristol Collection. The house and contents were acquired through the National Land Fund and transferred to the National Trust in 1956.
Makers and roles
British (English) School, sculptor
References
Cook 1985: B.F. Cook, The Townley Marbles, London 1985