Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema RA - 1902 Author:Helen Zimmern Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE WORK OF ALMA TADEMA THE first in date of Alma Tadema's preserved paintings is a cycle of pictures dealing with Merovingian times. To these Merovingians he... more » was early attracted, partly perhaps because in his old home and birthplace relics, such as coins, medals, armour belonging to that epoch were the only antiquities the soil could boast. Added to this, chance threw into his way Gregory of Tours' History of the Franks and the quaint old chronicler completely captivated his fancy. From this treasure-house of fact and fiction he drew a series of pictures which, if no more historically correct than Gregory himself, were nevertheless carefully pondered pieces of archaeological improvisation in which the minute studies of accessories made while still in Frisia stood Alma Tadema in good stead. Clotilde at the Grave of her Grandchildren was an incident entirely without foundation in fact, but one of Gregory's stories had suggested the situation, and Tadema at once realized its dramatic and pictorial possibilities. In treatment this canvas was still a little hard and dry, the influence of van Leys' somewhat arid manner was too apparent. The same criticism applies, but in a less degree, to its successor, the work that won for Alma Tadema his first success, The Education of the Children of Clovis. This, too, was inspired by the old Frankish chronicler, and here also, as often in Alma Tadema's art, a good deal of previous knowledge is requisite in order fully to appreciate the composition. It cannot be denied that this is one of the difficulties of truly understanding the painter's work. His subjects are apt to be at times a little too archaeological, a little too literary for immediate or easy explanation. Their atmosphere is inclined to be somewhat remote from common knowledge or int...« less