Calliope, Muse of Epic Poetry

This 1798 canvas depicting Calliope, muse of epic poetry, is one of the Muses series Meynier painted for the same patron and was exhibited at the Salon of 1800. Calliope was the most prestigious of the muses in the classical hierarchy, patroness of Homer and Virgil, and her inclusion in a decorative programme signalled the patron's ambition to associate his household with the highest literary tradition. The Muses series as a whole reflects the Revolutionary and Directoire taste for classical allegory as a replacement for the Christian iconography discredited by the Revolution's attacks on the church. Meynier's figures are directly indebted to the ancient sculptures he had studied during his Roman years, and Calliope's pose and attribute of the writing tablet place her firmly within the Greco-Roman tradition of personification.

Calliope is rendered with the same cool, polished Neoclassical finish as her companions in the series — smooth flesh, clear local colour in the drapery, and a balanced three-quarter pose derived from antique sculpture. The writing tablet is shown with crisp precision as a legible symbol of her literary domain.