The problem, therefore, is whether she conformed to the Greek ideal of beauty or was small and dark. Our only evidence in this matter is that furnished by art. The portrait of Sappho is preserved on coins of Mytilene, which present a face exquisite in contour. A fifth century vase, preserved in Munich, gives us representations of Alcaeus and Sappho, in which Sappho is taller than Alcaeus, of imposing figure and exceedingly beautiful. She was frequently portrayed in plastic art. According to Cicero, a bronze statue of Sappho, made by Silanion, stood in the prytaneum at Syracuse, and was stolen by Verres. In the fifth century of our era, there was a statue of her in the gymnasium of Zeuxippus, in Byzantium. The Vatican bust is that of a woman with Greek features, but, of course, lends no corroborating testimony as to her size and complexion. Alma-Tadema has fixed the current tradition in his ideal representation of Sappho's school at Lesbos--a marble exedra on the seashore at Mytilene. The poetess is seated on the front row of seats, with her favorite pupil, Erinna, standing by her side. Her chin rests on her hands as she leans forward against the desk, listening intently as Alcaeus plays the lyre. She is small, dark, beautiful, intense; and the artist has "subtly caught the prophetic light of her soul, her eager intellect, her unconscious grace, and the slumbering passion in her eloquent eyes." [Illustration 120 _SAPPHO IN HER SCHOOL OF POETRY IN LESBOS. After the painting by Hector Leroux. Wharton, in his great_ Memoir of Sappho, _says she "seems to have been the centre of society in Mitylene,--capital of Lesbos,--a kind of aesthetic club devoted to the service of the Muses. Around her gathered maidens from even comparatively distant places, attracted by her fame, to study, under her guidance, all that related to poetry and music". In the memoir he defends her character and speaks of "the fervor of her love and the purity of her life." The_ Encyclopedia Britannica _ranks her as "incomparably the greatest poetess the world has ever seen."_] Let us now consider the conditions under which Sappho's genius blossomed to fruition.