Recently at the Cincinnati Art Museum I have become intrigued by this painting, Comparisons by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema:
Alma-Tadema was a late 19th Century British painter known for his neo-classical style. The more I looked at this painting, the more I felt as if there was something very familiar. I focused in on the book with the ivory cover held by the young woman on the right. I knew I had seen it before.
Sure enough, I was looking through some pictures of items I had seen last year from the V&A Museum in London which were on display at the Speed Museum of Art in Louisville. Then I saw it:
It’s hard to tell from the painting but the young woman in Comparisons is holding the Symmachi Panel, a Roman artifact from the late classical period. Surely something Alma-Tadema, a Londoner, had seen and wished to incorporate into his work. I used Google, searching for more information about this connection, presuming that surely I wasn’t the first one. Not a single citation was found. Next step, shooting an e-mail to the Cincinnati Art Museum to see if they’ve noted the connection. If not, I begin to list my demands……art history is a dirty business. (Ha!)
Information about the Symmachi Panel: http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/sculpture/stories/
Information about Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema: http://www.artrenewal.org/articles/2001/Alma-Tadema/tadema1.asp
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