Museum

Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Spring

Alba Farias

Art History 305, Summer 2015

June 11, 2015

Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s Spring (1894) is an oil canvas painting currently located at the Getty Museum.[1] The painting is displayed in the museum gallery that holds paintings from the 1800’s, which has a distinct modern and sophisticated display setting. For example, the gallery is comprised of wooden floors, the walls are painted slate gray, and the ceiling is white. In addition, there is a sitting area at the center of the gallery from where the viewer gazes the paintings. Further, the gallery is guarded by a young man in a suit who stands near the entrance. Specifically, Spring is framed in an antique style frame and it is hung at eye level, under low lights. This changes the visual effect of the painting in a way that makes the viewer feel more intimate with the painting, as well as makes the colors more vibrant.

Spring is a whimsical and elaborate painting of a festival. The light contrast draws the viewer’s eye to the blue sky at the top of the painting. On the roof terrace of the Greek marble building there are spectators throwing flowers at the crowd below. Further down spectators are also seen on the balconies around the building. Then the viewer is drawn to the center of the painting where the festival is taking place. In back of the crowd there are men observing and two of them are holding up a type of celebration banner. Also, there is a group of women coming down the marble steps of the building. They are wearing long dark tan chiffon dresses and yellow, red and purple flower crowns. In front of the crowd there are young girls wearing beige knee length chiffon dresses with colorful flower crowns and carrying baskets of flowers. On the right hand corner there is a young woman that stands out. She is playing the flute and is the only woman wearing a sage color chiffon dress.

Laurens Alma-Tadema was part...