Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Plates bright and vivid. Softcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> Roman Empire and he also painted ancient Egypt as well as 15th- 16th and 17th-century Flemish scenes Some of his works show known historical personages often decadent characters such as the emperor Caligula [23] or the perverted Heliogabalus killing his courtiers by suffocating them with rose petals [69]. A number of his subjects are tragic such as An Egyptian widow in the time of Diocletian or The death of the first-born (27 28); but by far the majority are happy inconsequential everyday incidents in the lives of anonymous though well-to-do inhabitants of Rome or Pompeii. The paint- ings lack drama or strong feeling: figures are in repose or gentle movement faces are impassive and not dis- torted by strong emotion: Alma-Tadema’s people lead contented calm and prosperous lives. Alma-Tadema felt that art was closely bound up with daily life: All great art must in some form or other bear relation to life be in accord with the things we daily see and feel 2 Hence his use of everyday events as his principal subject matter though set in ancient times for he believed that there is not such a great difference between the ancients and the moderus as we are apt to suppose… the old Romans were human flesh and blood like ourselves moved by much the same passions and emotions. In choosing for the most part to depict ord nary events such as mothers and children fhrting cou- ples or women admiring flowers he was placing the emphasis on the differences between ancient and mod ern civilization as he saw it not differences of outlook or philosophy but material differences the architecture. (MP)