Fine Canvas Art Blog

Click to buy our fine art reproduction of this stunning piece!

In our reproduction of this masterpiece by Jean-Leon Gerome, we’re introduced to the reason why the Latin phrase that serves as the title for the work, Pollice Verso, is today interpreted to mean “thumbs down.”  The literal translation is simply “turned thumb,” and we are in fact uncertain as to how this was actually expressed in the Roman arena.

“Turned” could mean turned up, turned down, turned sideways, turned into the hand, turned towards the body or turned towards the pair of gladiators in the arena, etc.  Also, contrary to some popular notions, the hand gesture was never documented to have been used as a verdict towards prisoners or Christian martyrs in the arena.

It is a tribute to Gerome and this painting that Gerome’s interpretation has spread throughout modern culture.  According to Director Ridley Scott, the painting was a major influence in the production of the motion picture Gladiator.

In this image the victorious gladiator is turning towards the Vestal Virgins in their honored place in the Coliseum.  That situates the scene within the City of Rome after 72 CE, the date of the completion of the Coliseum.  The limiting date for this scene would have be approximately 400 CE, for it is then that the gladiatorial games and the sacred order of the Vestal Virgins both came to an end.  Interestingly, modern scholarship has shown that the gladiatorial equipment portrayed in this painting is not altogether authentic.

Jean-Leon Gerome was an adherent of the “Academic” style of painting.  The Academic school was a synthesis of the earlier Neoclassicist and Romanticist traditions as influenced and molded by the European academies and universities, notably the Académie des Beaux-Arts.

In the later 17th century, controversy arose as to whether line or color was more important in painting due to their respective appeals to the intellect versus the emotions.  The debate was revived in the 19th century with Neoclassicists championing a linear approach versus Romanticists, who favored color.  The various European academies attempted to unite the two sides of the argument and the result was new style which honored both line and style and tended to look to the art of the past for models, scenes, and inspiration.

This 1872 artwork by Jean-Leon Gerome was one of the Frenchman’s most successful efforts to master the Academic style of painting.  Gerome arrived in Paris in 1840, an impressionable sixteen year-old.  Within three years he accompanied his teacher Paul Delaroche to Florence, Rome, and Pompeii and when he returned to Paris he entered the Ecole des Beaux-Arts but failed in his attempt to enter the Prix de Rome.

In attempting to improve his abilities he created his masterpiece, The Cockfight, in 1846 and it won a third-class medal in the Salon of 1847.  This recognition began his rapid ascension.  Gerome’s paintings began to garner more and more praise and attention, and in 1848 he won a second-class medal and received a commission from the court of Napoleon III…which resulted in his monumental “Age of Augustus” of 1852.

Starting in 1859, Gerome began to concentrate more on themes from the Classical tradition.  These include his Diogenes of 1860, Cleopatra Before Caesar of 1866, Death of Caesar of 1867, and culminated in Pollice Verso in 1872.  In the meantime, Gerome was elected as a member of the prestigious Insitut de France, made a knight of the Legion d’Honneur, established as an honorary member of the British Royal Academy, and inducted into the Prussian Grand Order of the Red Eagle.  With his resulting international recognition and financial success, Gerome bought a home and expanded it into a grand house with atelier and sculpture studio.  He died in his atelier in 1904, in front of a painting of Rembrandt.

The original painting was purchased by Alexander Turney Stewart who displayed it in New York City. Since then it has been acquired by the Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona, and we are proud to add this fine art print to our collection…as you may be to add it to yours.