Fine Canvas Art Blog

Sappho and Alcaeus, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, 1881

British / Greco-Roman / Neoclassical / Paintings (Reproductions) - 1 year ago - troycapc

Sappho and Alcaeus were both on the list of the nine canonical lyric poets.  He was a sixth century Before the Common Era citizen of Mytilene, the leading city of Lesbos.  Tradition ascribes to him the invention of Alcaic verse as well as the position of lover of Sappho.  This scene would have been on Lesbos in the court of Sappho, possibly at Kallisteia, an annual Lesbian festival.

Sir Lawrence was born in the Netherlands and educated at the Royal Academy of Antwerp.  He settled in England in 1870 and became famous for this realistic portrayals of life in the Classical Era, both in Greece and in Rome.  He died in 1912 at the age of seventy-six years.

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