“Mariamne”
By J.W. Waterhouse, A.R.A.

The tragic story of Mariamne, queen of Herod the Great, falsely and treacherously accused of infidelity by Salome, her sister-in-law, and betrayed by her mother Alexandra, has ever been a favourite subject with history-painters of the more ambitious class, though less often in England than on the Continent. To Josephus we are indebted for all the details we know of the unhappy fate of this ill-starred lady, who, as we are told, was “of the greatest comeliness, eminent for her beauty,” while her dignity and her nobility of mind were such that not even her proud and imperious temper and “the too much of contention in her nature” could estrange her fierce husband’s passionate love. So enamoured and jealous, indeed, was he of her, and so satisfied that none other was worthy of her, that when he went to the wars he left private orders that should he fall, she, too, should be slain. This order, but not its motive, eventually came to the queen’s ears, who, not appreciating it as it was intended, misconstrued the grim compliment into treacherous fear, and took no pains to conceal her disgust of the king’s presence. “When Herod’s sister and mother perceived that he was in this temper with regard to Mariamne,” proceeds the historian, “they thought they had now got an excellent opportunity to exercise their hatred against her, and provoked Herod to wrath by telling him such long stories and calumnies about her as might as once excite his hatred and his jealousy;” for Mariamne, who “wanted moderation,” had more than once taunted them with their meanness of birth. Intrigue and conspiracy followed. Herod’s mind was now poisoned against her, and in his wrath at her insolent contempt he placed her on her trial to answer the charges brought against her “by way of calumny only. However, he kept no temper in what he said, and was in too great a passion for judging well about this matter. Accordingly, when the Court was at length satisfied” – not of her guilt, but – “that he was so resolved, they passed the sentence of death upon her.” He desired, however, to postpone the execution and merely imprison her, “but Salome and her party laboured hard to have the woman put to death, and prevailed with the king to do so; and thus was Mariamne led to her execution. She went to her death with an unshaken firmness of mind, and without changing the colour of her face, and thereby evidently discovered the nobility of her descent to the spectators, even in the last moment of her life. Thus died Mariamne;” while the grief and conscience-stricken tyrant so mourned her loss that a terrible illness, accompanied by temporary madness, for a time prostrated him.

Such is the story which Mr. Waterhouse has chosen as the source of his inspiration, and he has wisely elected to show us Mariamne at the supreme moment of condemnation. The haughty queen casting a look of mingled scorn, pity, and reproach at her vacillating husband – himself, to all appearances (as indeed he was), by far the greater criminal of the two – is a commanding and beautiful figure, contrasting strongly with that of Salome. The figure of the king perhaps hardly conveys an adequate idea of the warlike and blood thirsty monarch who remorselessly moved down all friends and enemies, men, women, and relatives, whom he thought to stand in his path. But otherwise, the character is well-suggested throughout. In some respects Mr. Waterhouse is, or commendably aims at being, a painter’s painter: that is to say, he rather seeks to achieve purely technical merits and overcome technical difficulties than merely to obtain such effects as may secure popular applause. Like his “St. Eulalia,” “Mariamne” is chiefly a study in whites, an exceptionally difficult scheme to carry out with success. But in Mr. Dobie’s excellent etching of the picture—which has been produced and published by the kind permission of Mr. W. Cuthbert Quilter, the owner of the original—the whiteness could not be sufficiently insisted upon, lest the general tone of the picture should be lost in undue baldness and emptiness. “Mariamne” may fairly be considered as its author’s best work. Although a little theatrical in arrangement, it is much better painted than any of his preceding pictures, and its light and shade are far more skilfully managed.

"The Lady of Shalott," by Mr. Waterhouse, is a disappointment; with a change of style and treatment there has come about a check in his onward course. Not that there is any lack of invention or drawing; but the French flatness of tones takes much of the quality out of the colour, and one is robbed of all sympathy for a lady so stiff of attitude and back.