Alma-Tadema exhibit at the Chiostro del Bramante

Along the bus routes, I'd noticed a poster for an Alma-Tadema exhibit, but I couldn't read it very well when it swooshed by me. So I was thrilled when a postcard landed in my hand with the location and a little map that allowed me to find it after searching for only... oh, say an hour!  And a lovely hour it was, poking around the Piazza Navona.  But on to the exhibit.

Two floors worth of OMG-freaking-WTF?! paintings by Alma-Tadema and others of his era---Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Burne-Jones, Waterhouse, Godward, etc.--were exhibited in what I suppose might have been an ancient palazzo. These are the romantic era painters, and the collector--Juan Antonio Pérez Simón--sure knows his beauty and sensuality.  I'm really at a loss to describe the emotive passion that his collecting tastes dictated, so I'll stick to the facts, m'am (and man).

There was a lengthy video about this collector (see bits of bio, below), and I was happy to sit in the cool darkness and watch in its entirety.  His collection is way more extensive than this very focused exhibit--I noted that he holds upwards of 4000 works of art, including everything from old masters such as El Greco to Dali.  In fact, the vid later mentioned that there had been an exhibit in San Diego with that very title!

No photos allowed, unfortunately, but you can find a wealth of his work by googling "alma-tadema paintings". There I was hoping to find an image of the utterly mind-altering painting called "The Roses of Heliogabalus", but alas, there is only an image of the little study (photo, above) for the painting. Said study was also in this exhibit. The actual painting is huge--perhaps 6 ft wide by 4.5 ft high. It is truly mind-warping in its impeccable draftsmanship, color, theme, paint handling, detail, luminescence, facial expression... I could go on and on. What a treat was this entire show! I must absolutely note, as well, that the darkened stairwell--which must be at least 1000 years old--had the walls covered in gently-lighted rose petals! GAH. Stupifying.

I saw this exhibit yesterday afternoon. The rest of the three days in Rome will have to wait, it's time to get on the road again shortly.
Ciao for now.

I read that Juan Antonio Pérez Simón is a "successful" (gross understatement!!!) Mexican businessman of Spanish origin, born in Asturias in 1941, who is also a well-known figure in the collecting world.  Here is WSJ article "A Collective Self-Portrait" http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303365804576430243584586866  and also visit this site:  http://www.musee-jacquemart-andre.com/en/events/el-greco-dali-great-spanish-masters-perez-simon-collection  ....for more about him and exhibits of his massive collections.