Nero Holding a Golden Lute with Rome in Flames
Date1897
Artist
Howard Pyle
(American illustrator, 1853–1911)
Illustration CitationQuo Vadis, by Henryk Sienkiewicz (Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1897)
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions25 3/8 × 16 3/8 in. (64.5 × 41.6 cm)
frame: 31 × 22 in. (78.7 × 55.9 cm)
frame: 31 × 22 in. (78.7 × 55.9 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mrs. Richard D. du Pont, 1965
Object number1965-18
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPAINTING
Label TextHoward Pyle depicts the Emperor Nero in sumptuous costume and laurel crown with his retinue in Henryk Sienkiewicz's historical novel Quo Vadis during the fire that devastated much of Rome in 65 CE. Handed a lute, Nero "raised his eyes to the sky, filled with the conflagration, as if he were waiting for inspiration...with a theatrical expression on his face, not thinking of his perishing country, but of his posture and the prophetic words with which he might describe best the greatness of the catastrophe." As viewers, we must look upward to the magnificantly-dresed Emperor. His chorus maintain neutral expressions, while observers of the political class at left ponder the meaning of Nero’s actions.
