When Roman decadence has become a popular subject artists discoverd christians martyrs. It wasn't the old martyrs well known from religious paintings. Know art favoured a morbid horror show. Here the viewer of the painting is more absorbed by the roman side, he is not suffering, he is watching the spectacle.
This painting "Nero’s Torches" (1876) by Henryk Hector Siemiradzki (1843-1902), shows how christian martyrs are burned alive on stakes. But just as important (or even more) are the roman costumes, all the exotic details and the half naked slave girls.
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.
Beneath the Arena (1882) by the German painter Karl Theodor von Piloty (1826–1886). Especially compared to the typical arena paintings, which prefered mostly the great spectacle, this is a more silent work. A young Roman patrician looks impressed on a Christian women sleeping while awaiting her death in the arena.
Faithful Unto Death - Christianae ad Leones (1897) by the British painter Herbert Gustave Carmichael Schmalz (1856-1935). One of that typical cheesy arena paintings where decorative naked Christians are waiting for the lions. Should be a great horror show but in the end it's all about the beautiful girls exposed to the onlooker – of the painting!
The Christian Martyrs Last Prayer (1883)
