An Eloquent Silence

Lawrence Alma-Tadema was known in his time for painting beautiful people in decadent Roman settings, but even for an artist known for his emotionally shallow work, this is a startlingly dull, emotionless scene. A young woman stares blankly into space, and a young man fiddles with a walking stick. Alma-Tadema’s flowers, often a fixture of his luxurious settings are clumsily integrated, without the compositional drama of The Roses of Heliogabalus or Unconscious Rivals.