Putting Homer into the Pompeii Mural

 

When I was painting the Muse of Sculpture* on the Pompeii Mural (Chapter 21, in the side bar), I had her sculpting a term. At its top was a bearded and long-haired head:

In the intervening years, I've looked at that head and thought that it fell short of the look that I was trying to achieve. And so I recently decided to paint a more authentic term, using Homer, the Greek poet of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Here's a wonderful depiction of him by the French artist, William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905):

Wikimedia Commons

And below is the revised mural term.

 * Of the Nine Muses in Greek mythology, there is actually no muse of sculpture.