Impasto: A Digital Museum

Lawrence Alma-Tadema, born in the Netherlands but not a successful painter until his emigration to England, was best-known for his depictions of the antique, or classical, past. Many of his works feature around recreations of ancient Rome or ancient Greece, focusing on the social life of individuals, ancient festivals and customs, and providing to his Victorian audience a window into a past they cherished and saw as their own. In an age devoid of television or cinema, Alma-Tadema’s images were perceived by many to be literal windows into the classical past; visual invitations into the Greek and Roman past that western European countries liked to claim as their own. Think of ancient Greek sculpture influencing western European painters; the classical Greek statues that inspired the first western art historians, such as Johann Joachim von Winckelmann and, later, Walter Pater; or think of the principles of Roman architecture that lies at the foundation of all medieval architecture; and, o...