![]() ![]() Such a broadening and experiential trip included significant time in Rome, where the Colosseumwas a chief point of interest and which is very similar to Carthage’s own great amphitheater. Although Felix most likely did not travel to that part of the world, he could have easily participated in a Grand Tour, a customary excursion in the 18th and 19th centuries for men coming of age, to see and learn from the culture and histories of antiquity. The painting’s setting is the Roman Amphitheatre in Carthage, the North African center of Christianity in the early centuries following Christ’s death and resurrection there is little more than an outline remaining today of the prominent structure that seated 30,000. Gros leaves little to the imagination in the spheres of conflict and conquest, so it is no wonder that his student, Felix, would choose to depict a martyrdom in a context resembling the twisted forms often found on a battlefield. ![]() Little known outside of France, Felix trained with Antoine-Jean Gro s, renowned for his depictions of some of Napoleon’s famous battles: Battle of Arcole, Napoléon on the Battlefield of Eylau, and Battle of Abukir. In this arresting example of the nineteenth-century Romantic style, Felix Louis Leullier uses all the forces of paint and position to create a gruesome depiction of one of the most famous martyrdoms of the Christian church. Oil on canvas, Signed and dated, Félix Leullier, 1880 Félix Louis Leullier Object of the Month: August 2018 The Martyrdom of St. ![]()
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