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PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE RUSSIAN COLLECTOR f - HENRI IPPOLITOVICH SEMIRADSKY, 1843-1902 CHRISTIAN PERSECUTORS AT THE ENTRANCE TO THE CATACOMBS

signed in Latin l.r., dated 1874 and further inscribed Roma

oil on canvas

CATALOGUE NOTE

Henri Semiradsky is one of Russia's finest 19^th century Academic painters who epitomized the traditional values of the Imperial Academy of Arts when many artists were rebelling against them. The Academy lavished awards and medals upon him and he received commissions directly from the Imperial family. He also gained recognition outside Russia and his paintings were shown frequently at the Salons of Europe. He excelled at huge compositions based on episodes from early church history and genre paintings celebrating the life of the Ancients.

He was born in a village near Kharkov in the Ukraine where his father was serving in the army. Throughout his youth he took drawing lessons under a pupil of Karl Briullov, and although he initially studied to become a mathematician, he later changed direction and in 1864 entered the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg. He won a seven year scholarship from the Academy in 1872 to study abroad and settled in Rome. One of his first compositions painted in Italy, The Sinner, 1872, was acquired by Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich and eventually made its way into the collection of Tsar Alexander II. Later he painted what was to be his most celebrated work, The Christian Martyrs depicting Christian crucifixions in the time of Emperor Nero. This painting gained him a professorship at the Imperial Academy and was exhibited at the Paris International Exhibition to wide acclaim. At this time he also worked together with Konstantin Makovsky and Vasily Surikov on the frescos for the interior of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.

Christian Persecutors at the Entrance to the Catacombs was painted in 1874 and is recorded in Bulgakov's directory of Russian artists Nashi Khudozhniki of 1890, which informs us that it was acquired by a private collector named Mr Ivashev. It depicts Roman persecutors arriving outside the catacombs. The early Christians used the catacombs as meeting places in which to worship and also as tombs to bury their dead, a tradition opposed to the Roman rites of cremation. It was not until the reign of Emperor Constantine in 313AD that they were able to erect churches and assemble in public without fear of persecution.

Other Russian artists to paint such themes were notably Konstantin Dmitrievich Flavitsky (1830-66) for his Christian Martyrs in the Coliseum and Vasili Dmitrievich Polenov (1844-1927) Caesar's Entertainment, 1879. Late 19^th century academic religious painting in Russia often focussed on subjects promoting the ideals of self-sacrifice and suffering.