Bust of the poet Homer

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Provision of image

Inventory number

ΕΑΜ 626

Category

Sculpture

Period

Late Roman Period

Date

Early 4th cent. AD

Dimensions

Height: 0.33 m
Length: 0.23 m
Width: 0.24 m

Material

Marble from Penteli

Location

First Floor, North

Description
Bibliography

Head of the poet Homer that according to its shaping in the back side comes from a bust. The lower part of the face and the nose are broken off and the head’s surface is worn and battered in many places.

Homer is depicted as a mature, bearded man with flaccid cheeks and deep set eyes that may denote the poet’s blindness. The irises and pupils are rendered with incisions. The short hair forms lopsided locks that frame the face without covering the ears. The moustache is thick and the long beard dense. Both hair and beard have been worked with a running drill thus creating vivid light contrasts. The poet wears on his head a strophion, tied at the back with a knot.

This head belongs to a series of portraits depicting Homer that all seem to copy an original work dating to the end of the 4th cent. B.C.

Last Statues of Antiquity Database - http://laststatues.classics.ox.ac.uk, αρ. κατ. LSA-2693
Καββαδίας, Π., Γλυπτά του Εθνικού Μουσείου. Κατάλογος περιγραφικός, Αθήνα, 1890-1892, σελ. 304, αρ. κατ. 626
Καστριώτης, Π., Γλυπτά του Εθνικού Μουσείου, Αθήνα, 1908, σελ. 95, αρ. κατ. 626
Hekler, A., «Hekler Neue Porträtforschungen in Athen», Archäologischer Anzeiger 1935, σελ. 398-399, εικ. 1-2, αρ. κατ. 1
Schefold, K., Die Bildnisse der antiken Dichter, Redner und Denker, Basel, 1943, σελ. 158, εικ. 173,1, αρ. κατ. 2
Richter, G., The portraits of the Greeks, I, London, 1965, σελ. 48-50, 56, εικ. 55-57, 121-122, αρ. κατ. 13
Richter, G., The portraits of the Greeks, III, London, 1965, σελ. 284, εικ. 2032
Bergmann, M., Studien zum roemischen Porträt des 3. Jahrhunderts n. Chr., Bonn, 1977, σελ. 159-160
Ρωμιοπούλου, Κ., Ελληνορωμαϊκά γλυπτά του Εθνικού Αρχαιολογικού Μουσείου, Αθήνα, 1997, σελ. 137, αρ. κατ. 150
Καλτσάς, Ν., Εθνικό Αρχαιολογικό Μουσείο. Τα γλυπτά, Αθήνα, 2001, σελ. 372, αρ. κατ. 793
Queyrel, Fr., La sculpture hellénistique. Tome 1: formes, thèmes et fonctions, Paris, 2016, σελ. 106,108