| Flaxman, John | 1755 -- 1826 |
| Sculptor
and illustrator, born in York, North Yorkshire, N England, UK. He studied at
the Royal Academy, and thereafter was constantly engaged upon sculpture, but
his chief source of income was the Wedgwood house, which he furnished with
renowned pottery designs. He also studied at Rome (1787--94), where he began
his illustrations to the Iliad and Odyssey (1793), and other works. In 1810
he became professor of sculpture at the Royal Academy.
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| Signed and dated 1779, this self-portrait sums up Flaxman’s early artistic education at the Academy Schools. His classical training is revealed by the antique figure on the plinth and the tablet with an acanthus leaf design - he would have copied many such objects as part of his training. Flaxman presents himself as an artist, depicted in the act of drawing and gazing intently out at the viewer. His right hand rests on a human skull, a typical attribute of a memento mori image. In view of his later career as the foremost sculptor of funerary monuments, this melancholy prop is prophetic. |
Flaxman's Illustrations for Homer's Iliad
Priam supplicating Achilles
Flaxman's Illustrations for Homer's Odyssey
The Council of Zeus
The descent of Athene to Ithaca
Phemios sings for the suitors
Telemachos accompanied by Athene
(disguised as Mentor)
Nestor's sacrifice
Penelope's dream
Leucothea (Ino) preserving Odysseus
Nausicaa throwing the ball
Odysseus presents himself to Alcinoös and Arete
Odysseus weeps at the singing of Demodocos
Odysseus mixes wine for Polyphemus
Antiphates seizes a crewman
The ghosts terrify Odysseus
Scylla
Lampetia complaining to Apollo
Odysseus asleep laid on his own coast
Odysseus conversing with Eumaios
Athene restores Odysseus to his own shape
Odysseus and Argos
Iros is terrified by Odysseus' physique
Eurykleia recognises Odysseus
Penelope carrying the bow to the suitors
Odysseus killing the suitors
The meeting of Odysseus and Penelope
Hermes conducts the souls of the suitors to Hades
