''Sappho and Alcaeus'' is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch-British artist

Lawrence Alma-Tadema Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema ( ; born Lourens Alma Tadema, ; 8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912) was a Dutch people, Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom, becoming the last officially recognised Denization, denizen in 1873. Born in ...

, from 1881. It is held by the

Walters Art Museum The Walters Art Museum is a public art museum located in the Mount Vernon, Baltimore, Mount Vernon neighborhood of Baltimore, Maryland. Founded and opened in 1934, it holds collections from the mid-19th century that were amassed substantially ...

, in

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Description

The painting measures . It depicts a concert in the late 7th century BC, with the poet Alcaeus of Mytilene playing the kithara. In the audience is fellow

Lesbos Lesbos or Lesvos ( ) is a Greek island located in the northeastern Aegean Sea. It has an area of , with approximately of coastline, making it the third largest island in Greece and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, eighth largest ...

poet Sappho, accompanied by several of her female friends. Sappho is paying close attention to the performance, resting her arm on a cushion which bears a

laurel wreath A laurel wreath is a symbol of triumph, a wreath (attire), wreath made of connected branches and leaves of the bay laurel (), an aromatic broadleaf evergreen. It was also later made from spineless butcher's broom (''Ruscus hypoglossum'') or cher ...

, presumably intended for the performer. The painting illustrates a passage by the poet Hermesianax, recorded by

Athenaeus Athenaeus of Naucratis (, or Nαυκράτιος, ''Athēnaios Naukratitēs'' or ''Naukratios''; ) was an ancient Greek rhetorician and Grammarian (Greco-Roman), grammarian, flourishing about the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd century ...

in his '' Deipnosophistae'' ("The Philosophers' Banquet"), book 13, page 598. The location, with tiers of white marble seating, is based on the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, but Alma-Tadema replaced the original inscribed names of Athenians with the names of Sappho's friends. In the background, the

Aegean Sea The Aegean Sea is an elongated embayment of the Mediterranean Sea between Europe and Asia. It is located between the Balkans and Anatolia, and covers an area of some . In the north, the Aegean is connected to the Marmara Sea, which in turn con ...

can be seen through some trees.

Reception

The painting was exhibited at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

in 1881, and depicted in William Powell Frith's '' A Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881'', to the far right, being inspected by John Everett Millais.William Powell Frith, ''The Private View, 1881'', Christie's, 11 December 2008
/ref> It was highly praised by critics: '' Punch'' described it as "marbellous".

Provenance

It was acquired by William Thompson Walters of Baltimore, and on his death in 1894 it was inherited by his son Henry Walters, who left it to the Walters Art Museum on his own death in 1931.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sappho and Alcaeus 1881 paintings Paintings in the Walters Art Museum Paintings by Lawrence Alma-Tadema Musical instruments in art Paintings of Sappho Oil on canvas paintings