User:Caeciliusinhorto/Sappho images
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The various ancient images of Sappho are a perennial topic for discussion on Talk:Sappho. Previous discussions can be found at:
- Talk:Sappho/Archive 3#The picture
- Talk:Sappho/Archive 4#Pictures
- Talk:Sappho/Archive 4#The picture yet again
- Talk:Sappho/Archive 6#Palazzo Massimo bust of Sappho
- Talk:Sappho/Archive 6#Image
- Talk:Sappho/Archive 6#Delete current main picture?
- Talk:Sappho/Archive 6#Another image
- Talk:Sappho/Archive 7#lede picture
This page in a nutshell: Many ancient images which have been identified as depicting "Sappho" do so on the basis of little evidence. Only four vases, a few coins, and a mosaic can be securely identified on the basis of inscriptional evidence; no ancient sculpture can be securely identified as Sappho. When choosing an image to depict Sappho in Wikipedia articles, use caution and add appropriate caveats to the caption. |
This page aims to summarise what ancient images exist which depict (or may depict, or have been thought to depict) Sappho, and the reasons for believing (or disbelieving) those claims. The general principle is: be skeptical. Historical identifications of ancient artworks often proposed that they represented particular individuals even when the evidence supporting that claim was weak. Identifications of ancient artworks given on Wikimedia Commons are often not cited to any reliable source, and do not necessarily agree with the consensus of modern scholarship.
While the examples given on this page are all about images of Sappho, many of the principles hold for ancient depictions of other figures. If the individual depicted isn't identified by an inscription, or some other exceptionally clear evidence, we should generally be cautious in saying an image is "of" them!