Let's continue the art and architecture thread on which we focused for most of this week by looking at a specific painting – "Entrance to a Roman Theatre" (1866) by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912). The painting was bought this year (for $1.8 million) by the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden (The Netherlands) and it is the largest acquisition in the history of this institution.
Alma-Tadema is considered as one of the most successful painters of the Victorian era: his scenes set in a distant Merovingian, Egyptian or Graeco-Roman past were characterised by beautiful and delicate shades and breathtakingly realistic details, from the facial features of his characters to their clothes and accessories or the translucent quality of materials such as marble.
Accurate details of wall decorations, benches, balconies, columns, arches, furniture design and drapery contributed further to create richly illustrated compositions. The paintings also had a special narrative power as they all had a precise story behind them or allowed the spectators to imagine an elaborate tale even behind the most ordinary composition portrayed.
"Entrance to a Roman Theatre" focuses on social life in Pompeii and therefore belongs to the painter's Pompeian period (1865-1870) that includes works characterised by the prominent use of deep colours such as a rich red as admired in Pompeian murals. The scene depicted actually portrays a sort of small performance that takes place before the play, outside the theatre and that revolves around four main characters.
Two groups of figures who seem to know each other occupy the centre of the composition: a mother and child and a couple. The figure of the man obscures the face of the woman on the left, though we can see her red hair and jewelry. From their position and gestures it is clear that the characters know each other, even though critics pointed out that their attires may suggest class differences.
Further interactions go on around them: an arch on the left allows to see inside the theatre where the audience is slowly gathering (the stage is probably set behind the characters in the forefront of the painting, since we can't see it). On the right of the painting, a man is helping another patrician woman descend a decorated carriage. Through his perspective and the way he lets his characters interact one with the other, Alma-Tadema relocates therefore the stage outside the building.
While the painting is fascinating for its perspective and juxtaposition of foreground details with a vignette developing in the background, and for its main scene depicted "in action", there is actually another interesting point to make about it: some of the characters portrayed seem more interested in showing the fact that they are going to a social event, and the painter criticises through them also the customs of respectable 19th century society. Yet the painting could be used also to criticise our vain contemporary society: imagine putting a smartphone in the hands of some of these characters and they would instantly take a selfie to prove where they are, rather than rushing inside the theatre to see what's going on there.
People interested in knowing more about this painting and Alma Tadema's art will be able to do so next year: "Entrance to a Roman Theatre" will indeed be part of a major exhibition opening in October 2016 at the Fries Museum.
Organised in collaboration with museums and research partners in the United States and Britain, the event will feature quite a few pieces from the Fries Museum's archive. The institution holds indeed the largest Alma-Tadema collection in the Netherlands (some of the paintings were donated to the museum by the painter himself and by his family) that also includes early works of medieval subjects and a later 'Roman' piece "Amo te, ama me" ('I love you, so love me too', 1881),but also architectural paintings such as "Interior of the Church of San Clemente in Rome" (1863).
Lourens Tadema was born in 1836 in the Frisian town of Dronrijp, and went to school in Leeuwarden. He trained as a painter at the Academy of Arts in Antwerp. He then worked in Brussels until he moved to London in 1870 where he lived the rest of his life. He anglicised his name to Lawrence and, in 1873, he adopted British citizenship. Apart from creating beautiful paintings, he also designed historical stage sets for important Shakesperean productions in London in the 1880s. In 1899 he was knighted, which entitled him to write "Sir" in front of his name.
Soon after he died his sentimental paintings that had appealed Victorian taste and values (his painting of the women of Amphissa offering nourishment to the Bacchantes from Phocis, even though Amphissa and Phocis were at war, was for example a lesson in charity for his Victorian audience) became outmoded and Tadema was no longer in demand. Yet he became popular again when his imagined antiquity turned into an inspiration for the decors, sets, settings and atmosphere of many blockbusters including Cecil B. De Mille's Cleopatra, William Wyler's Ben Hur and Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus.
The Fries Museum event will show the full development of the artist and will hopefully also explore the importance of the architectural details in Alma Tadema's ouvre, reminding visitors how the painter's collection of archaeological photographs played a key role in his practice.
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