The Roses of Heliogabalus

Lawrence Alma-Tadema

Oil on canvas

Pérez Simón Collection

This breathtaking oil painting depicts the young Roman emperor Elagabalus (also known as Heliogabalus) lounging in golden robes at a lavish banquet while a cascade of rose petals pours from a false ceiling, slowly suffocating his unsuspecting guests below — a scene of staggering beauty concealing horrific cruelty. Alma-Tadema renders the scene with his trademark photographic precision: luminous marble, shimmering silk, meticulously painted individual petals, and richly detailed classical architecture set against a brilliant Mediterranean sky. Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836–1912) was a Dutch-born painter who settled in London and became one of the most celebrated and highest-paid artists of the Victorian era, renowned for his archaeologically accurate and sensuously opulent reconstructions of ancient Rome and Egypt. Displaying this work brings into your home a masterpiece that is simultaneously a feast for the eyes and a meditation on decadence — a painting so dazzling in its pink-and-cream floral splendor that viewers often miss the dark fate of the revelers drowning beneath the blossoms.