DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.69400#0082
58
ALMA TADEMA
mortal verses of the Hellenic bard. On the
left stands another figure, also flower-garlanded
and wrapped in a toga. His face reveals that
his, too, is a keen appreciation of the power of
the words being recited. Rarely has even
Tadema’s magic brush painted a more luminous
work, so suggestive of sunlight, so truly trans-
figured and remote from life’s grosser moments.
Here, too, his flesh treatment is above his own
high average. The modelling of the woman’s
figure and of the lover is especially fine.
It seems incredible, and yet it is true, that
this composition, a large one for Alma Tadema,
with its five figures and innumerable access-
ories, was entirely painted in the brief space of
two months. Still, though completed in so short
a time, the preliminary studies, including an
abandoned picture, which was to have been
called Plato, filled eight months of close ap-
plication.
Not unlike in general treatment and in general
purpose to the Readingfrom Homer is the picture
simply entitled Sappho. In order to properly
comprehend this work, however, some knowledge
of the life story of the Greek poetess is required.
Not a few visitors to the Royal Academy, where
ALMA TADEMA
mortal verses of the Hellenic bard. On the
left stands another figure, also flower-garlanded
and wrapped in a toga. His face reveals that
his, too, is a keen appreciation of the power of
the words being recited. Rarely has even
Tadema’s magic brush painted a more luminous
work, so suggestive of sunlight, so truly trans-
figured and remote from life’s grosser moments.
Here, too, his flesh treatment is above his own
high average. The modelling of the woman’s
figure and of the lover is especially fine.
It seems incredible, and yet it is true, that
this composition, a large one for Alma Tadema,
with its five figures and innumerable access-
ories, was entirely painted in the brief space of
two months. Still, though completed in so short
a time, the preliminary studies, including an
abandoned picture, which was to have been
called Plato, filled eight months of close ap-
plication.
Not unlike in general treatment and in general
purpose to the Readingfrom Homer is the picture
simply entitled Sappho. In order to properly
comprehend this work, however, some knowledge
of the life story of the Greek poetess is required.
Not a few visitors to the Royal Academy, where