1863 -1912 · Power, workshop and urban life

Alma-Tadema makes Rome tangible through marble, objects and light: emperor, craftsman, amateur and merchant inhabit a documented Antiquity but designed for the modern eye.

After a trip to Italy in 1863, Lawrence Alma-Tadema shifted his interest from the Merovingians to Mediterranean antiquity. Pompeii, the museums of Naples, archaeological photographs and his own collection of objects constitute an archive that he freely reused. Rome therefore does not appear as a ruin: it becomes an inhabited city. In A Roman Emperor (Claude), power is read through the group, architecture and political aftermath rather than through a simple heroic portrait. An audience at Agrippa is read through the group, architecture and political aftermath rather than through a simple heroic portrait. An audience at Agrippa depicts access to the boss: clients, servants, marble and depth organize the social hierarchy. The Roman Potter and a Roman Workshop moves attention to work, objects and the trade in images. A Roman amateur allows Alma-Tadema to project into Antiquity the Victorian collector who examines and covets the work. The Flower Market finally introduces color, imagined perfume and urban activity. Marble, painted with a virtuosity that has become famous, serves both light and social structure: bench, step and balustrade regulate the distances between people. This archaeological Rome thus remains a sophisticated mirror of London. The selection "Ancient Rome at Lawrence Alma-Tadema" notably features A Roman Emperor (Claudius) - Lawrence Alma and An Audience at Agrippa - Lawrence Alma. His reading favors composition.

Alma-Tadema does not visit Rome like an empty monument: it reopens its workshops, its audiences and its markets to show how a society inhabits its objects.