Bookmark, Alma-Tadema's Spring

Lawrence Alma-Tadema spent much of his career doing one thing: painting ancient Rome with the kind of exactitude that required a research library. His studios held more than 7,000 photographs of Greek and Roman antiquities. Spring, from 1894, shows a May Day procession transplanted from Victorian England into ancient Rome, complete with period-accurate musical instruments, dress, and architecture. Its influence stretched well past Alma-Tadema's lifetime: Cecil B. De Mille drew from it directly when staging Cleopatra in 1934.

This bookmark reproduces a detail of the original painting. Gold-plated metal with tassel. 1⅛ by 3¾ inches. Made in the United States.

From the permanent collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.