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Sir Peter Paul Rubens Flemish, 1577 - 1640 Decius Mus Addressing the Legions, probably 1616 oil on hardboard, transferred from wood and canvas, 80.7 x 84.7 cm (31 3/4 x 33 3/8 in.) Samuel H. Kress Collection 1957.14.2 |
Object 5 of 8
About 340 B.C., the cities of southern Italy revolted against the authority of ancient Rome. At their camp near Naples, the Roman leaders were visited by a divine apparition who declared that the army of one side and the commander of the other must be sacrificed to the Underworld. The prophecy meant that the side that lost its general would be victorious. Rubens imagined the moment before the battle when Decius Mus, standing on a dais, tells his troops that, for the sake of Roman victory, he would allow himself to be killed.
Symbolizing Jupiter, the Roman king of the gods, a mighty eagle clutches lightning bolts in its talons and hovers behind Decius Mus. Rubens derived the soldiers' armor, helmets, shields, and military standards from ancient Roman sculpture. The whole composition, in fact, with its large figures silhouetted in the foreground, recalls the appearance of bas-reliefs carved on Roman victory monuments.
The subject is the first in a series of eight tapestry designs on the theme of Decius Mus, which Rubens completed by May 1618 for a Genoese patron. The panel is a modello, or small model, that was enlarged by workshop assistants into a full-size picture, called a cartoon, that was sent to Brussels for the weavers to copy.
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