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Perhaps the whole range of classic history, fabulous and true, offers no subject more suited to the sculptor's art than what writers, however scantily, tell us of Sappho, and what we have learned of her from some fragments of her poems which have come down to us. All poetry is allied with Art more or less, but the lyrics of Sappho, one of the greatest luminaries of the Æolic School, exhibit so much warmth of feeling, such sweetness, such delicacy of thought, and elegance of diction, that the artist, be he painter or sculptor, who seeks to idealise the fair poetess—remembering, moreover, that the beauty of her person is said to have equalled that of her mind—could have no more exquisite image presented to him as a model of feminine grace and purity.

                "She was one
Whose lyre tho spirit of sweet song had hung
With myrtle and with laurel; on whose head
Genius had shed his starry glories,—transcripts
Of woman's loving heart, and woman's disappointment."

The The whole of Sappho's poems are said to have been in existence in the time of Horace, who refers to her in his "Odes," nearly six hundred years after her death: she wrote nine books in lyric verse, besides epigrams, elegies, &c: with the oxception of one complete ode and a number of fragments, all these are extinct. It has been remarked that "the loss of her works is perhaps as much to be lamented as that of any other ancient author whose writings have perished, for besides the pleasure that might have been derived from them as works of art, they would undoubtedly have thrown much light on the condition and social relations of women in some parts of Greece, a subject now involved in great obscurity." Her history from the period when Bhe left her native place, the island of Lesbos, for Sicily, which sho is said to have done while yet in the full possession of her beauty and intellectual powers, though for what cause is not known—the time, place, and manner of her death, have never been determined. As with almost every other distinguished character of antiquity, so also with Sappho, there is much of the fabulous related of her by subsequent authors; among these tales the manner of her death by precipitating herself from Mount Leucas, because Phaon did not return her love, has been altogether rejected by modern writers.

We know not from what particular source, if any, Mr Theed borrowed his idea of his very charming statue, but the opening passage of a sweet though short poem by the late Miss Landon, entitled "Sappho," might very readily have suggested it, so applicable does it seem to the sentiment of the sculptured work:—

"She leaned upon her harp, and thousands looked
On her in love and wonder; thousands knelt
And worshipped in her presence; burning tears,
And words that died in utterance, and a pause
Of breathless agitated eagerness,
First gave the full heart's homage; then came forth
A shout that rose to heaven, and the hills,
The distant valleys, all rang with the name
Of the Æolian Sappho!"

The statue was executed by the sculptor for the Queen; it stands, with others, in the principal drawing-room at Osborne, of which it forms one of tho most attractive ornaments amid a number of beautiful pictures and sculptures. The figure is exquisitely modelled, graceful in its posturo, the limbs are well rounded and "fleshy, "yet delicate; tho face is distinguished by woman's timid tenderness, mingled with the joyous smile of some glorious dream of thought, perchance, to which tho "conscious pride of minstrelsy" has added a dignified, yet modest expression. [The material quoted above appeared here in the original article.]

Having had the honour of receiving the permission of Her Majesty and Prince Albert to engrave such of tho sculptured works in their possession as we consider adapted to our Journal, it will be our duty to let our readers see what royal patronage is doing for this branch of Art. Sculpture has been too long neglected in this country: but, fostered as it is by the highest personages in the realm, we nhall expect to see it exalting itself, pari passu, with the Art of Painting.

Bibliography

“Sappho.” Art Journal (1855): 30. Hathi Trust Digital Library version of a copy in the University of Michigan Library. Web. August 1, 2013.

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