Nero's Torches (Leading Light of Christianity)

Siemiradzki was one of the last masters of Academism, the style born in the French Académie des Beaux-Arts. The painting was created in 1876, the year the Impressionists had their second exhibition—an indication that Academism was outdated. Nero’s Torches depicts Nero Claudius Caesar ordering that the Christians, whom he blamed for burning down Rome, be tied to stakes and burned. The painting was extremely popular; as is traveled through Europe, crowds waited in queues for hours to see it.