Safo [The Death of Sappho] (1881)
by Miguel Carbonell Selva (Spanish, 1854–1896)
A woman stands at the edge of a cliff above the sea, robes caught by the wind, lyre in hand. She is about to step off. The painting captures the moment just before — the decision already made, the sea waiting below.
Miguel Carbonell Selva was a Spanish Academic painter who worked primarily in Valencia, known for technically accomplished historical and mythological subjects. Safo, painted in 1881, depicts the Greek lyric poet Sappho at the cliffs of Leucadia — the site of a legend that has followed her name for two and a half millennia.
Sappho of Lesbos (c. 630–570 BC) was one of the greatest poets of the ancient world, called the "Tenth Muse" by Plato and celebrated across the Greek-speaking world for her lyric poetry — much of it addressed to women, much of it romantic, all of it technically extraordinary. The word "sapphic" derives from her name, as does "lesbian" from her island.
The story that she threw herself from the Leucadian cliffs for love of a ferryman named Phaon is almost certainly apocryphal — invented by later writers who found her actual poetry inconvenient and preferred a more conventional ending. The real Sappho likely died of old age, surrounded by her work. But the legend persisted, and painters like Carbonell Selva found in it a subject that combined beauty, tragedy, and the sea.
What she is actually looking at, standing at that edge, is anyone's guess.
Rectangle Canvas Wrap
Gallery-quality canvas with fade-resistant inks and a 1.25" deep pine frame sourced from renewable forests. Arrives wrapped and ready to hang.
- Materials: cotton and polyester composite canvas, pine wood frame
- Inner frame: radiata pine from renewable forests
- Leveling bumpers included for wall protection
- Ready to hang — mounting hardware pre-attached
Care: Dust gently with a clean, damp cloth as needed.