Lawrence ALMA-TADEMA - A good observation point (1895)

 

A good observation pont
1895
Oil painting on canvas (64x45 cm)
Private collection

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Three charming women of Ancient Rome observe the galleys returning from their journey.

The work does not want to investigate the philological reconstruction of historical events but we are faced with the investigation of the matter; the painting tells the height, the fabrics and the consistency of sunlight. Almost an anticipation of contemporary and abstract art that sees the real artistic object in the material, more than in the figures and representations.

Alma-Tadema is a master of perspective complexity, to realize this it is enough to look at the articulated movements of the three women and the perspective view created by the architecture of the terrace.

The accuracy of his painting of him is perhaps due to the artist's Dutch origins, although to find recognition he had to emigrate to England.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema's cultural background is historical-archaeological, from which his predilection for subjects related to Ancient Rome, Greece and the mythical Egypt of the Pharaohs derives. Topics that enjoyed some success in the Victorian era.

In 1901 he was commissioned to produce Shakespeare's Coriolanus, staged by Sir Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theater in London.

Comparing artists: Carpaccio, Leighton, Poussin, Waterhouse