need of a class of pictures which reconstruct the past, so to speak, and do this with trustworthy accuracy. An enthusiastic teacher once said to me plaintively: “After I have given my classes a glowing account of the glories of Rome, all I can show them is ruins!” It is surely too much to ask of the ordinary pupil to transform a collection of pillars and stones into the Roman Forum as it looked to Cicero. While a few architectural views are desirable, it is wiser not to multiply them, and especially not to choose those which are mere heaps of stones. Maccari’s series of subjects, from the decorations of the present Roman Senate Chamber, is very useful; particularly those representing Cicero’s Oration against Catiline and Claudius entering the Senate. Piloty’s Triumph of Germanicus is a picture I have seen worked as a mine of historical information by a veteran history teacher. By the same painter is an interesting picture of The Last Moments of Julius Cæsar. Wagner’s Chariot Race, Vernet’s Roman Triumph, and Leroux’s School of Vestals are all good reconstructions. Salvator Rosa’s Conspiracy of Catiline and David’s Oath of the Horatii (both in the Louvre) are standard works of the old school of classical painting. Two pictures by Gabriel Max, The Last Token and The Lion’s Bride, illustrate the tragedies of the Roman persecutions of Christians.
In French history the most richly illustrated subject is the career of Napoleon. This suggests an excellent opportunity to a class to make collections or scrapbooks of pictorial Napoleonic material. Files
