Spring

In this painting, Alma-Tadema depicted the practice of sending children out to get flowers on the morning of May Day, or May 1st, but placed the scene in ancient Rome. A great historical researcher, Alma-Tadema was meticulous about portraying the historical elements in his paintings as the actually appeared. In this painting, he went to great lengths to portray the Roman originals, everything from the music instruments to the architectural details and dress are accurate to Roman history. He had an insatiable curiosity about classical antiquity, and he created over three hundred paintings on the topic. This painting was used a reference for Cecil B. De Mille’s movie “Cleopatra,” in 1934.