User:Caeciliusinhorto/Sappho images

The various ancient images of Sappho are a perennial topic for discussion on Talk:Sappho. Previous discussions can be found at:

• Talk:Sappho/Archive 3#The picture
• Talk:Sappho/Archive 4#Pictures
• Talk:Sappho/Archive 4#The picture yet again
• Talk:Sappho/Archive 6#Palazzo Massimo bust of Sappho
• Talk:Sappho/Archive 6#Image
• Talk:Sappho/Archive 6#Delete current main picture?
• Talk:Sappho/Archive 6#Another image
• Talk:Sappho#lede picture

This page aims to summarise what ancient images exist which depict (or may depict, or have been thought to depict) Sappho, and the reasons for believing (or disbelieving) those claims. The general principle is: be skeptical. Historical identifications of ancient artworks often proposed that they represented particular individuals even when the evidence supporting that claim was weak. Identifications of ancient artworks given on Wikimedia Commons are often not cited to any reliable source, and do not necessarily agree with the consensus of modern scholarship.

While the examples given on this page are all about images of Sappho, many of the principles hold for ancient depictions of other figures. If the individual depicted isn't identified by an inscription, or some other exceptionally clear evidence, we should generally be cautious in saying an image is "of" them!

Vases

The earliest depictions of Sappho come from Athenian vase-painting. Four vases are securely identifiable as Sappho on the basis of their inscriptions. Three are red-figure vases; the fourth uses Six's technique. Three of these are illustrated on Commons. A fifth vase has an inscription identifying it as being of Sappho; the vase is now lost and the inscription has been doubted. A line drawing is on Commons.

1. The kalpis by the Sappho Painter, in the collection of the National Museum of Warsaw, showing Sappho with a lyre. c.510 BC, the earliest surviving depiction of Sappho. Commons has both a high-quality photograph and a line-drawing.

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  Licensing is weird - I think probably this is okay but was mislicensed when uploaded!
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  Diagram from DM Robinson's Sappho and her Influence

2. The Brygos Painter's kalanthos, in the collection of the Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich, showing Sappho alongside Alcaeus. c.480-70 BC. This is perhaps the most famous and recognisable of the vases, and there is a good line drawing on Commons. The photographs aren't as high-quality as for the Sappho Painter's kalpis, and the inscriptions are not legible.

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  Fairly clear drawing showing both Sappho and Alcaeus, and making the inscriptions clear
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  Not the best detail, but the inscription identifying Sappho is (barely!) visible

3. The hydria by the group of Polygnotos, in the collection of the National Archaeological Museum, Athens, showing Sappho seated alongside three standing women. Like the Brygos Painter's vase, the photographs are good enough to see clearly but not excellent; like the Brygos Painter's vase, no inscription is legible. Unlike the Brygos and Sappho Painters' vases, no line-drawing has yet been uploaded to Commons.

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  Detail simply cropped from the original image

4. A Kalyx-Krater by the Tithonos Painter, in the collection of the Van der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal, showing Sappho with a lyre. No photos on Commons. Black and white photos on Oxford University's Classical Art Research Centre website.

5. A fifth vase, a now lost bell-krater, formerly of the Middleton Collection, is identified as Sappho with an inscription, however Beazley (Greek Vases in Poland 1928) doubted the inscription, and Yatromanolakis says that "the authenticity in this case cannot be verified or rejected unless the vase is recovered".

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There are also several Attic vases which are not inscribed with Sappho's name, but have been identified as Sappho on the basis of similarities to the known vases. See Yatromanolakis (2008), Sappho in the Making: The Early Reception for arguments against the validity of this practice. Vases of this type illustrated on Commons include a red-figure hydria in the British Museum which is similar to the NAMA hydria (the BM describes the identification with Sappho as "ambiguous"), and an amphora by the Niobid Painter in the Walters Art Museum showing a seated woman with a barbiton, alongside two other women (the museum describes it as "a musical scene" and does not mention Sappho). We should probably avoid these where trying to depict Sappho; the Sappho Painter, Brygos Painter, and Group of Polygnotos vases are sufficient for this.

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  Detail of British Museum hydria. High resolution, but unfortunate glare on the head.
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  Niobid Painter amphora
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  Detail of Niobid Painter amphora. Cropped from larger image so relatively small.

Sculpture

Ancient sculptural depictions of Sappho are less easy. Known ancient sculptures of Sappho include: bronze by Silanion at Syracuse (Cicero, In Verrem II), sculpture at Pergamon (epigram by Antipater), and seated statue at Zeuxippos in Constantinople (Christodoros, Greek Anthology).

Surviving sculptures which have been identified as Sappho include:

• ancient bust of a woman with the inscription "Sappho of Eresos" from the Capitoline Museum; however the inscription is not ancient: possibly the work of Pirro Ligorio in the 1500s.
• bust in the National Archaeological Museum Naples which is described as the "so-called" Sappho (Cornell library, which owns a cast of the bust, describes the identification as "highly speculative") and Gisella Richter notes the identification is "without helpful evidence"
• a votive plaque in the British Museum which is "perhaps" depicting Sappho and Alcaeus
• a head in the Glyptotek in Munich described as "probably" a copy of Silanion's Sappho - could be the sculpture which E Schmidt identified as Silanion's Sappho (with other versions in Vienna's Liechtenstein Museum and the Hermitage) and which Richter says is instead Hygeia?
• head in the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, which the museum lists as "Sappho?".
• bust in the Neues Museum Berlin is described on Commons as being a double portrait of Sappho and Alcaeus. Listed on Arachne as being of an unidentified man and woman. (I emailed the Museum, and they described the identification of the bust as Sappho and Alcaeus was dubious and speculative, and that an alternative identification is Crates of Thebes and Hipparchia of Maroneia)
• head from the Palazzo Massimo Alle Terme is described as "Saffo?", and it is unclear whether it even is an ancient head at all.
• bust in the Museo Chiarmonti - According to Gisela Richter, this is "now commonly recognised as representing Aphrodite
• head in Istanbul Archaeology Museum - According to Gisela Richter, this is "now commonly recognised as representing Aphrodite". A similar head in the British Museum is listed as being "sometimes identified as Sappho", but more probably Aphrodite after a sculpture by Phidias.
• A bronze, supposedly a fourth century BC portrait of Sappho, formerly of the Davanzati Palace, Florence. Tracking down more information is proving difficult.

Richter says "a number of tentative identifications have been made of sculptured heads ... there is only a vague possibility ... that they represent Sappho", and that "no reliable portrait in the round ... has so far been recognised". When using images of these sculptures to represent Sappho, appropriate caution in the captions is appropriate.

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  Capitoline bust. The inscription is not ancient.
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  Naples bust, from the Villa of the Papyri in Herculaneum. Could be a copy of Silanion's Sappho
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  British Museum Plaque. Perhaps Sappho and Alcaeus.
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  Glyptothek head. Could be a copy of Silanion's Sappho
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  In the Met. Possibly Sappho – several other sculptures of this type are known, so it must be a copy of a famous sculpture
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  According to the image description on Commons this is a double portrait of Sappho and Alcaeus in the Neues Museum Berlin; the museum lists is as an unidentified man and woman.
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  Palazzo Massimo bust. Could be Sappho; could be ancient; could be neither
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  Istanbul head; likely actually a portrait of Aphrodite
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  Bust in the Museo Chiaramonti; likely actually Aphrodite
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  Apparently identified as a fourth-century BC bronze portrait of Sappho by Goffredo Bendinelli in Ausonia 1911.

Other

Outside of vase paintings and sculpture, other ancient artworks which may depict Sappho include:

• Coins. Various coins from Mytilene and Eresos depict Sappho, and identify her by inscription: one example is found in the British Museum. No ancient coins certainly showing Sappho are available on Commons. We do have a drawing of a Mytilenean coin which supposedly shows her, though there is no identifying inscription.
• Paintings. The famous "Sappho fresco" from Pompeii is well-known not to actually depict Sappho. Pliny mentions a painting by the Hellenistic artist Leon; Demochares describes a portrait of Sappho in the Greek Anthology which may be the same as the one mentioned by Pliny. To the best of my knowledge, no authentic ancient paintings of Sappho are known (except vase paintings, covered above).
• There is a stucco relief apparently depicting Sappho's leap in the Porta Maggiore Basilica - we have one image, but the depiction of Sappho is very unclear and only visible if you really know what you are looking for.
• There are at least two ancient mosaics said to depict Sappho. One, from Sparta, has her name on the mosaic, but is not illustrated on Commons; the other, from the tomb of T. Aurelius Aurelianus, does not identify the herm as being Sappho, and other identifications have been proposed.

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  Definitely not Sappho
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  Archaeologists aren't even sure this is a woman. Richter doesn't mention this.
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  Identification of Mytilenean coins with lyres on the reverse as depicting Sappho is now disputed. The original source of this coin is unclear.
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  The Porta Maggiore Basilica. The panel depicting Sappho is on the right of the ceiling, incredibly unclear even when enlarged to full size and barely visible as a thumbnail.