'Phidias and the frieze of the Parthenon' 1868

Avant-garde in its depiction of coloured Greek statuary, an archaeological discovery with which nineteenth-century taste was having some difficulty in coming to terms; although Gibson's even more shocking 'Tinted Venus' -- the same experiment in the round -- was, of course, well-known from the Great Exhibition (and can now be seen at the Walker). Having made this statement, Alma Tadema, like many contemporaries, allowed aesthetics to trump archaeology, and depicted statuary untainted by tint.