Blog post by Kayla Coons

The Women of Amphissa is an oil painting on canvas by Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema painted in 1887. This painting was acquired by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in 1978. The painting is at The Clark as part of the Sacred and Profane: Four Hundred Years of Religious and Mythological Paintings show from September 21, 2013 to March 23, 2014. The painting depicts the Greek story recorded by Plutarch in the first century. The story is written about the women followers of Dionysus and Bocchus, the god of wine and grape harvest. The women celebrated with Dionysus through mysterious rituals that involved twirling dances. The women became confused, walked to the city of Amphissa which was at war with Phocis the city the women came from, and collapsed in the city square from exhaustion. In the painting the women are waking up, they do not know where they are or what happened, the women from Amphissa protected and cared for them. The entire painting makes you feel like you are in a dream, the softness of the figures and the fabric that surrounds them gives everything an ethereal vibration. Along with this soft focus there is a tremendous amount of fine detail. The detail brings you into the painting, making it seem like you could walk right into this dream of beautiful waking women. The details also lend to the theme of the painting, including hospitality, protection and the strengths of femininity. The wall of women parallels the row of stone columns to there right, shielding them from the soldiers. Representing the women’s strength and protection over the women of Phocis, (Sara King, English and History of Art 156, Brown University, 2007). This was a rare occurrence to represent and see women depicted as strong and powerful. At the time of the painting women were expected to be nurses and take care of the household and not much else. They were not expected or supposed to stand up against soldiers to generously protect the enemies women.