Roma Vivente é Roma Morta (Living Rome and Dead Rome) by Michael Frederick Halliday (1829-1869). Oil on panel. 8 x 10 in. (20.3 x 25.4 cm). Signed with Halliday's MFH monogram, lower right. Private collection. Image courtesy of the author.
Halliday exhibited this painting at the Royal Academy in 1866, no. 352, the last of his works to be exhibited there. The reason for the choice of this rather unusual title is unknown and unfortunately no quotation accompanied the painting's title in the Royal Academy exhibition catalogue to provide a clue. This suggests the title was Halliday's own invention rather than a quotation from a literary source. The title might possibly relate to the contemporary scene of a young Roman woman seated selling oranges against the backdrop of an ancient stone wall with classical carvings on it. We can be certain, however, that this was the subject of the painting shown at the Royal Academy in 1866 based on F. G. Stephens's description of it in The Athenaeum: "Mr. M. F. Halliday's Roma Vivente é Roma Morta (352) – a Roman orange seller seated on the earth close to a fragment of architecture – is very solidly and carefully painted, harmonious and excellent in colour, not laboured; bright, well composed" (742). A reviewer for The Illustrated Times felt this painting was an improvement over Halliday's previous submissions: "Roma Vivente é Roma Morta (352), by Mr. Halliday, is solidly painted, and, though small and unpretentious, shows signs of improvement" (331).
Closer views: Left: The oranges, and the patterning on the young woman's pinafore. Right: The young woman's face and bodice.
The painting has been influenced by the second phase of Pre-Raphaelitism as reflected in its bright bold "Venetian" colouring. There are also indications that Halliday was well aware of current trends in progressive art circles in the 1860s. Japanese prints and the Aesthetic Movement have impacted it as can be seen by how Halliday has incorporated the orange tree branches and leaves into the left periphery of the painting. Contemporary works by Aesthetic Movement artists like James McNeill Whistler's Symphony in White, No. 2 (The Little White Girl) and Albert Moore's Pomegranates of 1865-66 employed similar compositional devices.
It is uncertain whether Halliday ever travelled to Rome and it is more likely he worked up this picture in London. Although Halliday's painting of the orange seller predates the major influx of Italian models into England there were certainly Italian models available in London he could have drawn on. A strong Italian community became established in the Holborn area slightly later. The woman in Halliday's painting closely resembles the well-known Italian model Maria Ricci who was posing for artists in London at this time. Halliday's close friends William Holman Hunt and Robert Braithwaite Martineau also painted studies of Italian models at around this same time. Holman Hunt's picture entitled Past and Present, its title similar to that adopted by Halliday, featured a lady in Neapolitan costume kneeling in a church. Although Hunt painted the figure in 1863, he didn't complete the background until he went to Naples in 1868. Martineau's A Woman of San Germano of 1864 was definitely painted in London and not in Italy. Although the model is Italian and wears a traditional Neapolitan costume, the landscape background is purely imaginary. The compositions of Halliday's and Martineau's works are very close to each other, with both featuring Italian models seated on the ground.
Bibliography
"Fine Arts. The Exhibition of the Royal Academy." The Illustrated Times VIII, No. 584 (26 May 1866): 331.
Staley, Allen. The New Painting of the 1860s. Between the Pre-Raphaelites and the Aesthetic Movement. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2011.
Stephens, Frederic George. "Fine Arts. Royal Academy," The Athenaeum No. 2014 (2 June 1866): 742-43.
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