William Wetmore Story (1819-1895) – Sappho, 1863
“The subject of Sappho of Lesbos, the sixth-century-B.C. Greek poet, was a virtual Rohrschach test for nineteenth-century intellectuals, who often interpreted what little is actually known of her life and work to reflect their own predilections. For example, one journal stated in 1859 that Sappho was of “warm poetic temperament, of great lyric power, of voluptuous, passionate yearnings, and of many moral shortcomings.”
William W. Story saw her differently and chose to portray her in a calm, ideal pose. Seated in a klismos chair, she contemplates throwing herself off a cliff into the sea after her rejection by the Greek ferryman Phaon. A wilting rose, a symbol of failed love, droops across her unstrung lyre, contributing to the mood of listless reverie.”
(Ward, et al., MFA Highlights: American Decorative Arts & Sculpture, Boston, 2006)
