The Triumph of Camillus

c. 1470/1475

Biagio d'Antonio

Painter, Florentine, c. 1446 - 1516

Italian 15th Century

Painter

Winding from our right to left, a procession of dozens of people, mostly men and many in black and gray armor on foot and horseback, weaves through rocky hills to the gates of a city in this long, horizontal painting. The people we can see have light skin, and they are small in scale against the landscape. Throughout the procession, dogs nip at the heels of horses that walk, rear, or buck. Many of the armored men carry tall spears. The men not wearing armor mostly wear crimson-red robes over black stockings or short black tunics over stockings with one white leg and one mauve-pink leg. To our right, a man wearing black armor and a black wreath around his blond hair rides a gold throne on a large, gold platform being pulled by two cream-white horses. A gold canopy hangs over his head. Facing our left in profile, he points a scepter down at a person sitting in front of him, lower down on the base. That person wears a simple, lilac-purple tunic and slouching, denim-blue boots as he turns and looks up at the crowned man, hands raised. Three men and one woman sit in alcoves on the side of the base facing us with their hands behind their backs. The men wear black armor while the woman wears a muted sea-green dress. The letters “SPQR” are written in gold across the chest of a rider to our right. The procession in front of the throne passes around a tall golden structure like a fountain. At the top of that structure, a woman surrounded by gold rays to create an ellipse. The soldiers at the front of the procession cross a short, arched bridge leading into the city, and one rider carries a gold banner with a stylized, splayed black bird. Towers and domes in shades of cream, coral, and pink peek above the crenelated city wall. To our right, the landscape beyond the procession is dotted with trees leading to rocky mountains in the deep distance. The horizon line comes four-fifths of the way up the composition. A few wispy white clouds float across a sky that deepens from white along the horizon to lapis blue across the top edge of the panel.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

Animals, armored soldiers, and figures in colorful costumes fill this lively panel. On the right, the ancient Roman general Marcus Furius Camillus sits on a golden cart pulled by two white horses. Shackled prisoners of war ride below him. He is about to enter Rome, the city he is thought to have recaptured from the Gauls in the 4th century BCE. We can see the domed Roman Pantheon in the upper left. Themes from classical antiquity were popular subjects in Renaissance Florence.

This domestic decoration, called a spalliera, was usually commissioned for a marriage and was inset into the walls of a room. Meant to celebrate civic or moral virtue, the panels added a touch of chivalry to any environment.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 7

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    tempera on panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 60.1 × 154.3 cm (23 11/16 × 60 3/4 in.)
    framed: 81.4 x 175.3 x 9.8 cm (32 1/16 x 69 x 3 7/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1939.1.153

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Visconti collection, Milan.[1] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence); sold 27 December 1934 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1939 to NGA.
[1] According to Kress collection records, in NGA curatorial files.
[2] The bill of sale was for five paintings, with NGA 1939.1.153 described as "Cassone Front by Biagio di Antonio" (copy in NGA curatorial files). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2315.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2008

  • The Triumph of Marriage: Painted Cassoni of the Renaissance, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 2008-2009, no. 12, repro.

Bibliography

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 202, no. 264, as A Triumphal Procession by Giovanni Battista Utili.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 244, repro. 201, as A Triumphal Procession by Giovanni Battista Utili.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 78, repro., as A Triumphal Procession by Giovanni Battista Utili.

1963

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Florentine School. 2 vols. London, 1963: 1:212; 2:pl. 1034.

  • Carandente, Giovanni. I Trionfi nel primo Rinascimento. Turin, 1963: 80, 81, 134 n. 182, fig. 74.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 15, as The Triumph of Scipio Africanus.

1966

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XIII-XV Century. London, 1966: 132, fig. 355.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 8, repro., as The Triumph of Scipio Africanus.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 28.

1973

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 386.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 30, repro.

1976

  • Fahy, Everett. Some Followers of Domenico Ghirlandajo. New York, 1976: 209.

1977

  • Garzelli, Annarosa. La Bibbia di Federico da Montefeltro. Rome, 1977: 94-105.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:71-72; 2:pl. 46.

1983

  • Schiaparelli, Attilio. La casa fiorentina e i suoi arredi nei secolo XIV e XV. Florence, 1908. New ed. edited by Maria Sframeli and Laura Pagnotta. 2 vols. Florence, 1983: 2:83 n. 250.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 48, repro.

  • Garzelli, Annarosa. Miniatura fiorentina del Rinascimento (1440-1525): Un primo censimento. 2 vols. Florence, 1985: 1:150.

1991

  • Quinterio, Francesco. “Urbino.” In Franco Borsi, ed. ‘Per bellezza, per studio, per piacere.’ Lorenzo il Magnifico e gli spazi dell’arte. Florence, 1991: 380-381, fig. 3.

1992

  • Stapleford, Richard. The Age of Lorenzo de' Medici: Patronage and the Arts in Renaissance Florence. A Walking Tour of Italian Painting and Sculpture in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1992: 12, no. 12.

  • Montuschi Simboli, Bice. “Biagio d’Antonio Tucci.” In Saur. Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon. Die Bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker. Munich and Leipzig, 119 vols. Munich and Leipzig, 1992-2023: 10(1995):394.

1994

  • Rohlmann, Michael. Auftragskunst und Sammlerbild. Altniederländische Tafelmalerei im Florenz des Quattrocento. Alfter, 1994: 106.

1999

  • Bartoli, Roberta. Biagio d’Antonio. Milan, 1999: 153-156, 173 n. 41, 235, cat. 134, as Workshop of Biagio d’Antonio.

2003

  • Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 134-137, color repro.

2018

  • Miziołek, Jerzy. Renaissance Weddings and the Antique: Italian Domestic Paintings from the Lanckoroński Collection. Rome, 2018: 292, fig. 247.

Inscriptions

center right on the armor of a soldier: SPQR (the Senate and People of Rome)

Wikidata ID

Q20174065

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