Calyx-krater (wine bowl)
Greek, about 440 BC, attributed to an artist working in the
manner of the Peleus Painter
Made in Athens, Greece; found in the river Gela, Sicily
Identified in the eighteenth century as the 'Apotheosis of
Homer'
The vase shows a kithara-player mounting a platform,
watched by a winged figure of Victory, a judge and other onlookers.
Modern scholars believe that it shows the winner of a music
contest. But in the eighteenth century it was thought to show the
'Apotheosis of Homer' - the poet Homer becoming a god.
The vase was part of Sir William Hamilton's (1730-1803) first
collection of antiquities, sold to the British Museum in 1772.
Hamilton referred cautiously to the scene as the 'Apotheose of
Homer, or some celebrated Poet'. But d'Hancarville, author of the
catalogue of Hamilton's vase collection, positively identified the
central figure as the ancient Greek poet Homer. D'Hancarville
shared contemporary admiration for Homer's genius and his
interpretation was widely accepted. Like others, including Johann
Winckelmann (1717-68), he believed that the sublime quality of
Homer's poetry had transformed the visual arts from their primitive
origins to the beautiful naturalism displayed here.
Hamilton hoped that his collection would improve the work of
artists and artisans in Britain, and this vase did prove to have a
considerable influence. John Flaxman (1755-1826) copied the scene
for a plaque for mantelpieces and Josiah Wedgwood used it on a
jasper ware vase, known as the 'Homeric vase' or 'Pegasus Vase'.
Wedgwood donated one of these vases to the British Museum in 1786
and considered it 'the finest & most perfect I have ever
made'.
K. Sloan (ed.), Enlightenment. Discovering the (London, The British Museum Press, 2003)
I. Jenkins and K. Sloan, Vases and Volcanoes: Sir Willi (London, The British Museum Press, 1996)