Monday, August 25, 2014

The Roses of Heliogabalus


The Roses of Heliogabalus                  By Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Heliogabalus is widely considered one of Rome's worst emperors.  He was foreign, disregarded Roman tradition, attempted to replace Jupiter, leading deity of the Roman pantheon, with his personal sun god, Elagabal, married a vestal virgin, and allegedly had dalliances with other men and would dress up like a woman.  To people of the 19th century he would represent the pagan debauchery and poor leadership that would lead to the fall of the Roman Empire.  As the book points out, Heliogabalus also has parallels to Oscar Wilde, a controversial writer of the time.  The art represents that, however impressive or rewarding the pursuit of personal pleasure is, it can suffocate the modern world just as it did to ancient Rome.

2 comments:

  1. The painting also shows the emperor Heliogabal's sadism: He enjoys showering his guests with so many luxurious rose petals that they'll suffocate under them.

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  2. ...Heliogabalus is now in my top five Roman emperors.

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