The Apotheosis of Homer

What it is

This large painting was made by the French artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres in 1827 for a ceiling in the Louvre, where it still hangs. It shows the poet Homer being crowned by a winged figure, surrounded by dozens of famous writers, artists and thinkers from Greece, Rome and later times.

Why it matters

The painting shows how 19th-century France imagined a 'hall of fame' of Western culture. Socrates is placed among this crowd of honoured geniuses, showing how later Europeans saw him as one of the great founding minds of civilization, alongside poets like Dante and artists like Raphael and Michelangelo.

Look closer

• Why might Ingres want to include philosophers like Socrates next to poets and painters?
• What does the choice of figures tell us about what Ingres and his era valued most?
• Who is missing from this gathering, and what might that reveal about the painter's own time and biases?