The immense popularity of von Wagner’s action-packed imagining of Roman chariot racing demonstrated that there was keen consumer interest in the Ancient period. With at least three versions of the paintings on the theme in various locations in the world and etchings made after the 1873 original distributed widely, the Chariot Race in all its iterations also inspired renewed artistic interest in the Roman imperial era. Writers, musicians, and other artists realized there was a thirst for epic depictions of Ancient Rome, and many piggy-backed directly off of von Wagner’s work. While some artists take loose inspiration from the Chariot Race, like composer John Philip Sousa, who translates the thrill of the painting’s drama into a now-famous symphonic march, others re-purpose the composition in its entirety, as in the 1901 poster for a theatrical production of Ben-Hur — even though von Wagner’s painting preceding the original book’s publication by nearly a decade is obviously not an illustration of Ben-Hur at all.
The Chariot Race & Pop Culture