I have recently become interested in learning about some of the lesser know asteroids and Sappho is what I'm currently invested in and have found a fascinating thought I would like to introduce about Sappho and it's influence based on the events at the time of it's discovery. Sappho was a real person that lived c.600BC. She is attributed with being a feminist having many talents, especially the arts. Sappho the asteroid was discovered in 1864.
During the late 19th century the disease tuberculosis was ravaging the world with it's highly infectious bacterial spread. During the late 1800's a cultural depiction known as "tuberculosis chic" began to populate the art world and popular culture. The artistic depiction was a romantization of the dramatic wasting away that took place as the disease slowly extinguished it's host. As you can see with the painting above the subject is young, we can see the release in her facial expression and the objects in the background alluding to time and in a surreal setting that is soft and dream-like. Many artistic portrayals of women during this time were of tranquility and release as dying subjects that became even more beautiful and elegant in death. I also want to point out that around this period the east coast was ravaged by a terrible fear of vampirism as a lack of understanding of the disease led to folks being convinced that consumption was coming from the deceased that rose again to suck the life out of the living and therefore exumed bodies to remove their limbs therefore removing their ability to walk or take hold of something should they try and rise. Vampirism in itself has so many allegoric associations with tuberculosis I feel like it's pretty much common knowledge that the two are highly linked.
Anywho, literature was a popular form of the time and I believe Charles Dickens and Charlotte Brönte added the affliction to characters in the books of time or at least made reference to it.
Art imitates life, right? Or is it life imitates art? If you want to be enlightened to the heart of a subject look at an artistic portrayal of it. I noticed that the glyph of Sappho looks like a mirror with a line down the middle like it's dividing the mirror into two sides. A symbol of duality? Reflection within reflection?
Did you know that John Wilx Booth played Marc Antony in Shakespeare's Julius Cesar alongside his brother in 1864? John would go on to assassinate Abraham Lincoln the following year... in a theater... something about the theater!! It's almost like he had some weird fantasy about a dramatic finale don't you think?
A major turning point in the Civil War took place in 1864 when General Grant was tasked with leading the Union in the next phase of the war that would also end the following year.
So these are just some of the things that I've found that stand out to me as relevant in some capacity.
📷: culturedmag