Hendryk Siemiradzki

Newman, Ltd., London
Private Collector, California
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1955

Feliks Kopera, Dzieje Malarstwa w Polsche, Od XIX do XX Wieku, vol. 3, Krakow, 1929, fig. 336, discussed p. 316, illustrated p. 321 
"Kurtyna Krakowska (Zb. p. L. Norblina)", unpublished article, (Frick Art Reference Library), in Polish and French, discussed under important works, p. 2

Henryk Siemiradzki moved to Rome in 1872 after winning a scholarship from the St. Petersburg Academy, where he had flourished under his first teacher, the history painter Karl Briullov. The Eternal City’s power never released its hold upon him, and he became particularly interested in discoveries made by archaeologists and classicists in Rome.

The Girl or the Vase? shows the artist's extraordinary ability to convey the splendor and corrupting power at hand at the height of the Roman Empire. Siemiradzki uses the work's subject, a rich patrician’s difficult choice between acquiring a slave girl or a rare vase, as an excuse to lay out for his viewer an array of treasures. He adapts these objects to make them as splendid as possible, valuing exuberant excess over historical accuracy. This approach delighted his audience, which was hungry for exotic imagery and to see evidence of archaological finds underway around the world.

Siemiradzki’s creative adaptation is exemplified by the urn at the center of the composition.  The shape and the cloisonné decoration of the lower half are of Chinese origin, while the gems studding the surface are Mughul, and at the top, an incongruous Japanese ivory vase has been added. On this vase, there is a superimposed image of Kartikeya, a God of War from India, recognizable astride his peacock steed.

Many other objects in the painting have a similar layering of appropriated details, meant to dazzle rather than record. The couch is based on a bronze example in Rome’s Capitoline Museum. An Egyptian harp, based on a wall-painting from the tomb of King Ramesses III (12th cen., B.C.), peeks out at center right. Among the works at upper right we see an imposing marble statue of Eros that is based on a famed Greek original, but which incorporates elements from several Roman copies. Also we see a version of the cult-statue of Artemis of Ephesus (Fig. 1); her temple, on the coast of Asia Minor, was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Whether looking at the golden tapestry (which includes images of Assyrian stone reliefs from Mesopotamia) or the suit of armor's circular shield (featuring both an Egyptian winged-scarab and Arabic writing from centuries later), this incredible painting fairly explodes with historical objects. The beautiful nude slave, whose robes and hair decoration identify her as Greek, becomes one more treasure heaped on the inestimable pile. The excess inherent in this masterfully painted image is celebrated by the artist and foreshadows Rome’s eventual fall.

Though The Girl or the Vase? does not depict a particular scene from history, Siemiradzki’s historical paintings propelled him to international fame. Collected by Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna and receiving commissions directly from the Russian Imperial family, Siemiradzki’s years at the St. Petersburg Academy led Russian artists and dignitaries to visit his Roman studio regularly, which was even listed in Baedeker’s travel guide for tourists. Siemiradzki also welcomed fellow Polish artists and writers to Rome. One of these visitors was Henryk Sienkiewicz, who arrived in 1894. Within three years, he had completed what would become one of the best loved and internationally best selling books of the era, Quo Vadis. It was Siemiradzki who took the Polish author on his first tour of Rome, showing him a chapel inscribed with St. Peter’s famous phrase, "Quo Vadis" ("Where are you going, Lord?")

A passage from the book describes Nero’s most important courtier, Petronius, deciding whether to accept the post of prefect that Nero has offered him; to refuse would be dangerous, but still Petronius muses: "To be prefect meant to bear on his shoulder's Cæsar's person…why should he perform that labor? Was it not better to read poetry in his splendid library, look at vases and statues, or hold to his breast the divine body of Eunice, twining her hair through his fingers, and inclining his lips to her coral mouth?" (H. Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis, 1896, trans. J. Curtin, p. 371). This sensuous description reflects the mood of the present painting and other works Sienkiewicz must have seen in Siemiradzki’s studio.

Indeed, Siemiradski’s best known work Nero’s Torches, (Krakow National Museum, 305 by 704 cm) relates directly to the novel’s subject. Painted in 1876, this enormous canvas shows a crowd of Roman maidens in suggestive robes, a bored-looking Nero in a golden litter, and the doomed Christians, bound atop wooden stakes, wrapped in floral garlands, soon to be consumed by flames. The surfeit of violence, sensuality, and beauty overwhelms. Sienkiewicz’s wildly popular novel owes much to Siemiradzki’s imagery. Though The Girl or the Vase? is stripped of narrative, it holds the same iconic forces of sex, implicit violence, and display of power. These themes held the artist in their thrall, and the present work shows his enormous ability to pass along his sense of awe to the viewer.