Date of Award

2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Humanities

First Advisor

Carrasco, Malena

Keywords

Sappho, Neoclacissicm, Kauffmann, David, Eroticism

Area of Concentration

Art History

Abstract

Throughout antiquity, the Lesbian poet Sappho (c. 612-570 BCE) was renowned for her exceptional talents as a lyric poet. However, Sappho's popularity dissipated after the fall of the Roman Empire, and it only slightly regained popularity towards the end of the Italian Renaissance. It was not until the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in France that Sappho truly reestablished her position as a prominent creative figure. Sappho's popularity as a subject in the visual arts became especially important between the years of 1775-1846. The first part of this thesis examines Sappho's creative reputation throughout classical antiquity, and how women painters between the years of 1775-1808 identified with Sappho as a creative genius. The second part of this thesis examines how French history painters from 1791-1846 transformed Sappho from a creative genius into a creatively incapacitated figure- a shift that proved vital for how her reputation would develop over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

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