Dernières prières des martyrs chrétiens

A small group kneels in prayer on the sand while a lion steps out of the dark into the blinding light of a packed arena. Gérôme kept this canvas on his easel for over twenty years and repainted it three times before he let it go.

The story behind the painting

W. T. Walters of Baltimore commissioned the painting in 1863, but Gérôme only delivered it in 1883. In a letter sent with the canvas he apologised for the wait: the picture had been on his easel for more than twenty years, he had repainted it from the beginning three times and reworked both effect and composition, always keeping his first idea. This, he wrote, is really the third canvas you receive. He called it one of his most studied works, the one that gave him the most trouble, and ended with a question: is it a success?

What to look for

Gérôme explained that the scene is the Circus Maximus, not an amphitheatre, though only its curved end is visible. On the left stands the meta at the end of the spina, the turning post for chariots, and you can see wheel tracks in the sand. In the middle distance hang those condemned to be burned, tied to crosses and smeared with pitch. In one corner the Christians, emaciated and in rags after long imprisonment, pray together, while from an opened underground passage the starved beasts emerge. He chose the moment the animals first stop, astonished by daylight and the crowd, like a Spanish bull halting mid-stride as it enters the ring.

Meaning and intent

Gérôme wrote that for these believers dying was a joy; their only thought was to stay firm to the end, and apostasy was rare. Their hearts and their faith alone remained strong. The Wikipedia article sets the scene beside Tacitus's account of Christians under Nero, torn by dogs or burned as lamps by night, which notes that pity arose because they seemed sacrificed to the ferocity of one man. It also notes that who exactly Tacitus was referring to is disputed.

Legacy

Finished in 1883, it became one of Gérôme's most famous works. It is also known as The Christian Martyrs and The Last Prayer, and remains in the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, the collection of the family who commissioned it. Wikidata gives its size as 87.9 by 150.1 cm. His letter travelled with the canvas, so the painting arrived with its own explanation: the Circus Maximus, he wrote, held more than one hundred and fifty thousand spectators and touched the Palace of the Caesars. Few paintings carry their maker's doubts so openly, ending with the simple question of whether it is a success.