Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-lawrence-alma-tadema-6" aria-label="More by Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema</a>
A Priestess Apollo
Bequeathed by R.H. Williamson 1938
actions: postures and motions
adults
animals: features
arch
architecture
classical
classical
clothing and personal items
features
fur
fur / hide
history
interiors
looking up
objects
people
periods and styles
priestess
religion and belief
religious
religious
religious and ceremonial
Rome
standing
sunshine
temple
universal religious imagery
urn
vessels and containers
weather
woman
work and occupations
worship
wreath
<p>Apollo was one of the gods who lived on Mount Olympus. He was the sun god, and the Romans believed that he rode his fiery chariot drawn by four horses across the sky each day. Here, one of the priestesses of a Roman temple of Apollo looks rapturously upwards towards the sun. Alma-Tadema changed this picture extensively from his first design. The lines of a room now show through the thin paint of the walls to the left and right of the figure, and what is probably a marble bench is still visible to the immediate left of the figure.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2001</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
A Priestess of Apollo
support: 349 × 298 mm
Bequeathed by R.H. Williamson 1938
<p>In Roman mythology, Apollo was the sun god who lived in Mount Olympus, and who, in the guise of the sun, rode his chariot drawn by four horses across the sky each day. In this painting one of the priestesses stands barefoot inside the temple of Apollo looking up towards the sky, perhaps awaiting Apollo’s return in the evening. She wears a spectacular leopard skin tunic, and has a wreath of ivy in her air. These symbolic ornaments, as well as her business in serving wine, suggest her licentious behaviour in the temple. 
<br/>
<br/>The subject matter is unusual for Alma-Tadema who, from the 1880s onwards, generally painted the ‘happy, inconsequential everyday incidents in the lives of anonymous though well-to-do inhabitants of Rome or Pompeii’ (Becker, p.11). Alma-Tadema had first travelled to Italy in 1863, visiting the ancient archaeological sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum. He revisited several times taking photographs of architectural details and artefacts which were used as reference material for his paintings when he returned to England. The golden jug that the priestess is holding and the large silver urn may have been amongst the recently excavated objects. The inclusion of the ‘latest archaeological discoveries enhanced the sense of immediacy, for spectators who would recognize the artefacts’ (Becker, p.36). Alma-Tadema’s 167 albums of photographs are now housed at the University of Birmingham.
<br/>
<br/>At the time <i>A Priestess of Apollo </i>was painted, Alma-Tadema had risen to prominence in the London art world and had begun to entertain on a lavish scale at his large house in Grove End Road, St Johns Wood. He was knighted in 1899 and awarded the OM in 1907.
<br/></p>
<p><b>Further reading:</b>
<br/>Christopher Wood, <i>Olympian Dreamer: Victorian Classical Painters 1860-1914, </i>London 1983
<br/>Edwin Becker, ed. <i>Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, </i>exhibition catalogue, Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam 1997</p>
<h2>
<a name="Heading10"></a>R. J. Barrow, <i>Lawrence Alma-Tadema, </i>London 2001</h2>
<p>
<br/>Heather Birchall
<br/>February 2003</p>

Summary
2006-02-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>Apollo was one of the gods who lived on  Mount Olympus. He was the sun god, and  the Romans believed that he rode his fiery  chariot drawn by four horses across the sky  each day. Here, one of the priestesses of  a Roman temple of Apollo looks rapturously upwards towards the sun. Alma-Tadema  changed this picture extensively from his first design. The lines of a room now show through  the thin paint of the walls to the left and right of the figure, and what is probably a marble bench  is still visible to the immediate left of the figure.</p>
Display caption
2001-09-05T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: postures and motions adults animals: features arch architecture classical classical clothing and personal items features fur fur / hide history interiors looking up objects people periods and styles priestess religion and belief religious religious religious and ceremonial Rome standing sunshine temple universal religious imagery urn vessels and containers weather woman work and occupations worship wreath