I discovered from a search for <The Lantern Bearers> (the title of one of Rosemary Sutcliff‘s bestselling and award-winning historical novels) that there was an American painter of distinction, Maxfield Parrish, who made a work called The Lantern Bearers. It was created originally, in 1908, as a frontispiece for the December 10, 1910 issue of Collier’s magazine.
A press release from the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art quoted its director Don Bacigalupi in July 2010: “The detailed representational style juxtaposed with a flat, almost medieval sky create spatial ambiguities that are most interesting. This work has a stage-set, dream-world quality that is compelling.” Hmmm…
ROSEMARY SUTCLIFF (1920-92) 
Ah, memories of flower power and its consequences … I used to visit Rosemary in a tie die shirt, loons and hair to my shoulders!
LikeLike
Brings back memories – Maxfield Parrish’s artwork had a renaissance during the flower-power era – I remember in the 1960s and ’70s nearly everyone I knew had an MP poster somewhere in their home! His style is still appealing – very romantic Art Deco yet often rather classical in appearance – think Alma-Tadema refined and pared down.
http://parrish.artpassions.net
LikeLike