The painting Sappho Recalled to Life by the Charm of Music (1812; Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena) by Louis Ducis (1775–1847) is interesting in numerous diverse aspects. Firstly, it constitutes an original and very significant example in neoclassicism of the most genuine Napoleonic origin. Moreover, besides being based on a contemporary source (Étienne-François de Lantier, Les Voyages d’Antenor en Grèce et en Asie, avec des notions sur l’Égypte, 1797), it offers an interpretation of the therapeutic use of music that ultimately dates back to ancient authors like Empedocles of Acragas and Pythagoras. It seems, as a whole, to comprise a complex allegory in which the force of reason and the national interest (raison d’état) prevails over an instance of excessively vulnerable feminine sentimentality. In this scene, the poet from Lesbos stands as a sort of heroic counter-model in opposition and contrast with the patriarchal and militarist model advocated by the new Bonapartist Empire.
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