Blind Homer Led by the Genius of Poetry

Edward Sheffield Bartholomew

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of many American neoclassical sculptors who worked in Italy during the mid-nineteenth century, Bartholomew had a brief but successful career. "Blind Homer Led by the Genius of Poetry" attests to his command of the illusionistic and technical challenges of relief sculpture. The figures project convincingly as Poetry leads Homer across a plinth. They are dressed in classical garb that clings to their bodies yet falls in stylizing folds, suggesting the pull between realism and idealism often evident in mid-nineteenth-century American sculpture. This relief—and indeed many by Bartholomew and other Americans—reflects the profound influence of Italian sculptor Antonio Canova, especially in the crisp linearity of form and refined carving. The marble is surrounded by its original gilt frame.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art