Delacroix 2018

This grisaille sketch is a preparatory work for the ceiling decoration of the cupola of the Senate Library at the Palais du Luxembourg. Delacroix conceived the cupola’s composition in reference to Canto IV of Dante’s Inferno , in which Dante, led by Virgil, is presented to the great classical poets Homer, Ovid, Horace and Lucan. Our sketch depicts these poets, the principal group of the cupola, in which famous men from ancient Greece and Rome are gathered around the circumference.

Homer Receiving Virgil and Dante , detail of the mural in the ceiling dome, Library of the Luxembourg Palace.