Illustrations to Homer's Iliad

An album with the heads of Homer and seven leading participants in the Trojan War

Details

Illustrations to Homer's Iliad
An album with the heads of Homer and seven leading participants in the Trojan War
with a label attached to the cover inscribed '8 bl. Character Köpfle der Homerischen Helden', the album of thirteen leaves, with seven drawings inserted to face pages inscribed with the identifications in German:
1. Homer.
2. Paris und Helena.
3. Priamus.
4. Menelaus.
5. Achilles.
6. Agamemnon.
7. Ulysses., the drawing removed and replaced with a label inscribed 'Der Ulysses ... Gräfin von Oeder' (Grafin von Oeder has the Ulysses)
8. Diomedes.
black chalk, pen and brown ink, watercolor
the album 24¾ x 21¾ in. (625 x 550 mm.); the drawings 19¼ x 15 in. (490 x 382 mm.) (7)

Engraved

(1, 4 and 8) By the artist for his Homer nach antiken, Göttingen, 1801, and Stuttgart, 1821.

Further details

END OF SALE

Lot Essay

The publication of Tischbein's great project to illustrate Homer, accompanied by texts by Christian Gottlob Heyne, was never completed. The introduction had as frontispiece the Head of Homer, part III opened with the Head of Diomedes and part IV with the Head of Menelaus. The project was abandoned before any further engraved frontispieces were used.

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