The Iliad of Homer, The Odyssey of Homer, Compositions from The Tragedies of Aeschylus, and The Theogony, Works and Days of Hesiod

James Parker|John Flaxman|Tommaso Piroli|William Blake|James Neagle|Homer|Aeschylus|Hesiod|Robert Harding Evans|John and Arthur Arch|Jane Matthews|William Miller|Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown

1795–1817 · Illustrations: line engraving and stipple engraving (Hesiod only) · Drawings and Prints

Before he arrived in Rome in 1787, Flaxman exhibited portraits and classical subjects in terracotta and plaster in London, and designed decorative reliefs for Josiah Wedgwood. During the seven years he spent in Italy, the sculptor developed a striking new style of outline drawing to illustrate famous poetic works by Homer and Aeschylus for private patrons, and the images were then engraved and published in Italy, France and Britain. Contemporaries saw these images as strikingly primitive, echoing the style of Greek vase painting, and well suited to archaic poetic subjects. Flaxman prefered to represent figures in profile, based furniture and costume on ancient sources, and used the open expanses of white paper to great psychological effect.

Artist

James Parker|John Flaxman|Tommaso Piroli|William Blake|James Neagle|Homer|Aeschylus|Hesiod|Robert Harding Evans|John and Arthur Arch|Jane Matthews|William Miller|Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown

Date

1795–1817

Medium

Illustrations: line engraving and stipple engraving (Hesiod only)

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Harvey Smith, 1977