Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry (1798): Art, History and Details

Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry (1798) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Charles Meynier (French, 1768–1832).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The eldest of the nine Greek muses, Calliope was the goddess of music, song, and dance. She was also known as the goddess of epic poetry and conferred the gift of eloquence on kings and princes. She stands here before a bust of Homer, the ancient Greek poet who wrote the Odyssey and the Iliad. This painting belongs to a cycle of five works commissioned by businessman François Boyer-Fonfréde for his home in Toulouse.

Object facts

• Title: Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry
• Date: 1798
• Creator attribution: Charles Meynier (French, 1768–1832)
• Culture: France, late 18th-early 19th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Overall: 275 x 177 cm (108 1/4 x 69 11/16 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 2003.6.4

A detail from the museum

Through the assistance of his brother, a famous actor of the Comédie Française, Charles Meynier studied in the studio of François André Vincent, the principal rival of the master Jacques-Louis David

Collection credit

Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Bellenger, Sylvain. "Magnificent Muses", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 44 no. 01, January 2004
• Bracken Sparks, Amy. "Disappearing Act." Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 48, no. 5 (May/June 2008): 10-12.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.