The Empress Theodora at the Colosseum (c. 1889) by the French painter Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (1845-1902). Nothing is to be seen of the bloody spectacle in the arena. There is only the empress, cool and relaxed she is watching. But it's no coincidence that the dominating colour is red.
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1 day ago
Despite the suggestion of bloodshed, this is actually a beautiful painting. Do you know of any other works by Mr Constant that I could look up?
ReplyDeleteConstant painted mostly orientalistic subjects but was indeed better than many of his colleagues. I think besides his craftsmanship it's mostly because he doesn't pretend to be "realistic", his paintings are at first about light and color.
ReplyDeleteSome of his paintings are on a German blog about orientalistic painting: http://orient-bilder.blogspot.com.es/search/label/Constant