Greek EPIC POEM HOMER ILIAD ODYSSEY TROJAN WAR Odysseus ~ 1878 Art Print Gravure

Description: HOMER A MENDICANT Artist:Lecomte Du Nouy Note: the title In the box above is printed below the art image on the print. A HIGH QUALITY PHOTOGRAVURE PRINTED IN THE 1870'S!! PERFECT FOR FRAMING AS AN ART PRINT FOR YOUR DEN !! VERY ANTIQUE & OLD WORLD LOOKING. ITEM(s) OVER 120 YEARS OLD!! Obviously it is in the great picture of Ingres, the "Apotheosis of Homer," that Lecomte-du-Nouy finds the idea of personifying the "Iliad" and "Odyssey." Ingres represents them as sitting figures, both war-worn and sombre; the Odyssey grasping an oar, to express the idea of traveling. The young- pupil of Gerome depicts the Iliad and Odyssey as standing forms; the Iliad tramples upon the head of Hector, and holds up a sword in dedication to Phoebus, before the altar of Troy. The Odyssey, supporting herself on the oar, returns, vailed, to the palace of Ulysses, where the crescent of Hecate dimly illumines a twilight scene, and Penelope's interminable tapestry waits in the basket, not to be finished till the husband's reappearance. Framed by these upright figures the painter places in the midst the inspired mendicant, their progenitor. The boy who leads him, in an attitude of confidence, sinks sleeping in his lap, as the blind hard reposes by a well in some antique city. Is it Smyrna, Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodes, Argos, or Athens,- cities the disputants of his birth, and mourners of his death, "Through which the living Homer begged his bread?" The inspired harp reposes idly by the well-curb, strangely associated with the wanderer's cane and the mendicant's platter. Homer is awake, turning up the balls of his sightless eyes to the evening which closes upon them, night upon night. Fatigued to the last degree by the day's wanderings, he meditates a new canto of his poems-not now of the stirring Iliad, but of the weary Odyssey. And as he counts the cities he has delighted with his songs, without receiving from any of them the poor boon of a home, he thinks of the journeys of Odysseus, and as the prototype of his wandering hero, he sees sublimely-himself. People familiar with Gerard's "Belisarius" will discover a striking resemblance in motif with M. Lecornte-du-Nouy's work and "Belisarius;" except that the latter work is not balanced by battles of the victorious general. The dreamy sentiment which pervades " Homer" characterizes " Belisarius," both appealing to our compassion and not vainly. No one can tell the place where Homer was born, whether he was a European or Asiatic Greek, or whether, in fact, a Homer ever lived at all. Wolf, in his famous Prolegomena, first made popular the startling theory that the poet whom men had so long worshiped and imitated was no more a real character than Romulus or Theseus, and that the Homeric poems had been composed at different periods, by various writers, whose names were forever lost. But modern critics still cling to the real existence of a Homer, and the Iliad and the Odyssey bear everywhere the traces of the labors of a single mind. They are so admirable that it is impossible to believe that they are only a combination of irregular ballads and the work of various writers. So brilliant a piece of mosaic would not have escaped the scrutiny of ancient criticism, and must apparently have been recorded in history. We assume, therefore, that Homer lived, and that some of the legends told of his early life are true; that he was a poor hard who wandered from town to town chanting his ballads for money; that he was blind in his old age; that he was a native of lonia, and lived in some prosperous Greek city on the Asiatic shore, and perhaps left descendants in Chios. Jules Jean Antoine Lecomte-du-Nouy was born at Paris, and is a pupil of Gleyre and of MM. Gerome and Sigftol. The first of his pictures which left an impression on our mind was "Job and his Friends;" an often-treated subject, it shows the principal, with his friends, telling them that they are false. At the same Salon he exhibited a "Dancing Fellah Woman," a study which he had made at Kaphra, in Upper Egypt. This was in 1867, when all the world was agog with the Exposition Universelle of that year. Next year he exhibited " La Folie de Ajax ie Telamonien," illustrating a passage from the "Ajax" of Sophocles, when the hero reproaches himself for permitting the accursed Atrides to escape from his hands. SIZE: Image size in inches is 5 ½ " x 9 ½", overall page size is 10" x 15". CONDITION: Good condition. Nothing printed on reverse. Thick rag stock paper. Actual picture is much larger and crisper than this scanned image shows. SHIPPING: Buyers to pay for shipping/handling. Domestic orders receives priority mail, international orders receive regular mail. We pack properly to protect your item! An engraving is an intaglio process of printing, with the design to be produced is cut below the surface of the plate (made of copper, steel or wood), and the incised lines are filled with ink that is then transferred to paper. The portraits on our currency are good examples of engraved images. A Photogravure is an intaglio process in which the plate is produced photographically. Please note: the terms used in our auctions for engraving, heliogravure, lithograph, line drawing, photogravure etc. ALL refer to images PRINTED on paper AT THE DATE MENTIONED. VERY RICH, THREE DIMENSIONAL IMAGE! A RARE FIND! NOT A MODERN REPRODUCTION!

Price: 12.79 USD

Location: New Providence, New Jersey

End Time: 2024-12-17T15:03:10.000Z

Shipping Cost: 9.95 USD