Sappho and her influenceRobinson, David M. (David Moore)
History
Sappho and her influence
Robinson, David M. (David Moore)
Sappho -- Influence
No full-size statue which we can certainly identify as Sappho’s has been
preserved. The seated lady in the Vatican holding a volume in her left
hand is hardly Sappho, and it is not safe to call the standing lady
with lyre in New York in the Metropolitan Museum by her name. It would
be interesting to believe, as some do, that the famous maiden of Anzio
in the National Museum in Rome was Sappho, but some scholars of repute
even go so far as to say that it is not even a maiden but rather a boy.
Others say that a priestess, not a poetess, is portrayed. After repeated
examination of the original I have no doubt of her sex and believe the
statue to be that of a poetess, but whether of Praxilla or Sappho or some
other cannot be definitely stated. We have, however, many Roman busts of
different types[130] which have been conjectured to represent Sappho. One
type in all probability is copied from Silanion, as it resembles closely
in the features of the face and the arrangement of the hair, especially
the little curls in front of the face and in the covering of the head,
the portrait of Sappho on the early coins of Mytilene. The best example
of this type is the bust in the Villa Albani in Rome (Pl. 19). It has the
perfection, refinement, and finish to which Cicero referred, and Sappho
is “exquisitely portrayed.” In the Biscari collection at Catania, Sicily,
there is a Roman copy of a head meant to be inserted in a bust or statue.
It is so poorly finished that it was probably placed in a niche or chapel
to be seen from a distance. The oval face is young but placid and cold, a
characteristic partly due to the Roman copyist. With its corkscrew curls
and in other respects it is similar enough to the busts in the Villa
Albani and the Galleria Geographica of the Vatican to be classed with
them. If they represent Sappho, the Sicilian bust also does. If Rizzo
is right that this is a muse or nymph, then a copy of Silanion’s statue
still remains to be found.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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