Shy 

Lawrence Alma-Tadema painted 'Shy' using oil on panel, sometime during his career. While seemingly a traditional medium, oil paint here is used almost photographically. Look closely at the marble surfaces: the precisely rendered veins in the stone, the meticulously carved reliefs. This isn't just about depicting luxury, it's about the labor required to produce it. The columns and benches, while beautiful, speak to a system of extraction, production, and consumption. The very act of painting in this style, demanding countless hours of skilled work, mirrors the intensive labor embedded in the scene itself. Alma-Tadema’s detailed representation of material wealth compels us to consider the social and economic realities underpinning such displays of opulence. By focusing on the making and materiality of the artwork, and of the scene itself, we can see beyond the surface and glimpse the complex relationships between labor, class, and artistic representation.