Glaucus and Nydia

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Artist: Lawrence Alma-Tadema (British, 1836–1912)
Medium: Oil on wood panel
Size: Unframed: 39 x 64.3 cm (15 3/8 x 25 5/16 in.)
Culture: England, 19th century
Museum: Cleveland Museum of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

"It was one of the few moments in her brief and troubled life that it was sweet to treasure." Weaving a rose garland as a present for her beloved master Glaucus, the blind servant Nydia resists speaking of her love for him. The scene is based on Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton's enormously popular historical novel The Last Days of Pompeii (published in 1835), a melodramatic epic set in ancient Roman times, which culminates with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius.

Responding to the 19th-century appetite for things antique, the artist filled his historical scenes with depictions of Roman frescoes and statuary. Dutch by birth, Alma-Tadema made this picture in Brussels for a London art dealer. But the demand for such paintings became so great that he moved to England, where he achieved great financial and social success.