Homer

Nothing is known of Homer's true appearance, since the art of portraiture did not begin in Greece until centuries after his death. Ancient literary sources record invented likenesses of Homer as early as the fifth century B. C., but it was the so called "Blind Homer" portrait created by a Hellenistic Greek sculptor in the second century B. C. that most touched the imaginations of viewers, sculptors, and collectors in antiquity and the modern era alike. Of the numerous ancient copies of the "Blind Homer" portrait that survive, Crawford chose a specific head in the Capitoline Museum in Rome as the model for his version. The drapery that covers the back of the head on the Crawford Homer exists on only one Capitoline copy among all the surviving ancient versions. It is in fact a modern restoration added to the ancient portrait, and reproduced by Crawford.