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Lot Essay
No other painter of the 19th Century captured on canvas the century's love affair with the ancient world as vividly as Sir Lawrence Alda-Tadema. As Jeremy Maas comments in Victorian Painters: "It was Alma-Tadema's intention to attempt in the light of available knowledge to reconstruct a view of the antique world in which an aspiring middle class could see themselves reflected". Indeed, the spectacles and ceremonies of ancient Rome presented the artist with a perfect backdrop for his historical recreations. His scenes set in the Coliseum of Rome which he painted throughout his career are among the most spectacular in his oeuvre.
The present work, painted in April 1912, is of notable importance as it is the artist's last major work before his death two months later. Even at the age of 77, Alma-Tadema's talent and energy showed no signs of waning as testified by the complexity of this painting. In the late 1880's he even became more involved in theatrical productions, designing sets and costumes for such productions as Julius Caesar and Cymbeline, and this experience was invaluable as it enabled him to 'stage' his own painted scenes on a grand, theatrical scale. The main character of this composition, a sumptuously clad attendant female, is directly drawn from an earlier work of 1907, one of the artist's most celebrated Coliseum scenes entitled Caracalla and Geta, Bear Fight in the Coliseum: A.D. 203 (Swanson, op. cit., pp. 269 and 478, no. 415). In a Coliseum packed with spectators, the canvas depicts a gala given by ruling Emperor Septimus Severus (193-211 A.D.) in honor of his first son Caracalla whom he has chosen to receive the title of Antonius Caesar. The attendant featured in the present work appears in the far right of the composition standing dutifully behind the family members.
Alma-Tadema did not significantly alter his portrayal of the attendant figure, yet his enlargement of this area of detail allowed him to further develop and embellish the figure and her surroundings. The resulting canvas is nothing short of a masterpiece in its compositional complexity and painterly bravura. The moment in time captured is the period of preparation before the entry of the spectators. And whereas in the previously noted composition, this character took a subsidary role, in this work she occupies the central position, holding a ceremonial cloth and standing stoically by the smoldering branziers. Beside her stands a marble table with an ornate display of food, a visual opportunity for Alma-Tadema to showcase his talent for painting still life. Laden with eggs, grapes, pears and pomegranates, the fruit is rendered with such attention to detail that it seems almost edible.
As in all of Alma-Tadema's canvases, the architecture plays an integral role in the organization of the composition. Alma-Tadema's favorite compositional device of placing figures on different architectural levels provides the foreground with a high vantage point. His heroine appears larger than life, a statuesque figure that dominates the vast expanse of the arena, made even more monumental by its emptiness. The leopard skin draped draped over her is richly painted and perfectly imitates the texture of fur. Other beautiful touches include the fallen pink rose petals below the branziers and the fountain carved into a niche below the seats with decorated with a classical relief of two fighting warriors. Alma-Tadema believed that the more one looks at a picture one's sight continues to focus and refocus as one reads the surface of the painting. This conviction holds true as the viewer's eye scans the upper reaches of the arena's seats in which each seat is marked with a barely disernable inscription in Roman numerals.
As Vern Swanson comments "this painting is significant because it illustrates in a dynamic way his abillity to constantly incorporate new influences into his work" (op. cit., p. 275). Swanson goes on to explain that this late work reveals the influence of Fernand Khnopff, the Belgian Symbolist painter who became the artist's close friend late in his career. Khnopff often visited Alma-Tadema in his studio in St. John's Wood, and it is interesting to note that the last time they saw each other was in 1907 while Alma-Tadema was completing Caracalla and Geta. The fixed gaze and strong profile of the attendant is reminiscent of Khnopff's characteristic stylization of the face and his common use of elaborate headresses must have motivated Alma-Tadema to create a Classical variant.
The present work, painted in April 1912, is of notable importance as it is the artist's last major work before his death two months later. Even at the age of 77, Alma-Tadema's talent and energy showed no signs of waning as testified by the complexity of this painting. In the late 1880's he even became more involved in theatrical productions, designing sets and costumes for such productions as Julius Caesar and Cymbeline, and this experience was invaluable as it enabled him to 'stage' his own painted scenes on a grand, theatrical scale. The main character of this composition, a sumptuously clad attendant female, is directly drawn from an earlier work of 1907, one of the artist's most celebrated Coliseum scenes entitled Caracalla and Geta, Bear Fight in the Coliseum: A.D. 203 (Swanson, op. cit., pp. 269 and 478, no. 415). In a Coliseum packed with spectators, the canvas depicts a gala given by ruling Emperor Septimus Severus (193-211 A.D.) in honor of his first son Caracalla whom he has chosen to receive the title of Antonius Caesar. The attendant featured in the present work appears in the far right of the composition standing dutifully behind the family members.
Alma-Tadema did not significantly alter his portrayal of the attendant figure, yet his enlargement of this area of detail allowed him to further develop and embellish the figure and her surroundings. The resulting canvas is nothing short of a masterpiece in its compositional complexity and painterly bravura. The moment in time captured is the period of preparation before the entry of the spectators. And whereas in the previously noted composition, this character took a subsidary role, in this work she occupies the central position, holding a ceremonial cloth and standing stoically by the smoldering branziers. Beside her stands a marble table with an ornate display of food, a visual opportunity for Alma-Tadema to showcase his talent for painting still life. Laden with eggs, grapes, pears and pomegranates, the fruit is rendered with such attention to detail that it seems almost edible.
As in all of Alma-Tadema's canvases, the architecture plays an integral role in the organization of the composition. Alma-Tadema's favorite compositional device of placing figures on different architectural levels provides the foreground with a high vantage point. His heroine appears larger than life, a statuesque figure that dominates the vast expanse of the arena, made even more monumental by its emptiness. The leopard skin draped draped over her is richly painted and perfectly imitates the texture of fur. Other beautiful touches include the fallen pink rose petals below the branziers and the fountain carved into a niche below the seats with decorated with a classical relief of two fighting warriors. Alma-Tadema believed that the more one looks at a picture one's sight continues to focus and refocus as one reads the surface of the painting. This conviction holds true as the viewer's eye scans the upper reaches of the arena's seats in which each seat is marked with a barely disernable inscription in Roman numerals.
As Vern Swanson comments "this painting is significant because it illustrates in a dynamic way his abillity to constantly incorporate new influences into his work" (op. cit., p. 275). Swanson goes on to explain that this late work reveals the influence of Fernand Khnopff, the Belgian Symbolist painter who became the artist's close friend late in his career. Khnopff often visited Alma-Tadema in his studio in St. John's Wood, and it is interesting to note that the last time they saw each other was in 1907 while Alma-Tadema was completing Caracalla and Geta. The fixed gaze and strong profile of the attendant is reminiscent of Khnopff's characteristic stylization of the face and his common use of elaborate headresses must have motivated Alma-Tadema to create a Classical variant.