Search Results:

<< Viewing Record 289 of 495 >>
View : Light Box | List View | Image List | Detailed
 


Maker(s):Panini, Giovanni Paolo (or studio)
Culture:Italian (1691 - 1765)
Title:The Death Leap of Marcus Curtius
Date Made:ca. 1730-40
Type:Painting
Materials:oil on canvas
Place Made:Italy
Measurements:stretcher: 40 x 50 in.; 101.6 x 127 cm
Accession Number:  SC 1951.139
Credit Line:Gift of Jean McLean Morron, class of 1901
Museum Collection:  Smith College Museum of Art
1951_139.jpg

Description:
outdoor; architecture; people; animal; military/war

Label Text:
Giovanni Paolo Panini is known for his imaginative compositions of classical Roman architecture. His historical scenes are often set in idealized landscapes with ancient ruins, as seen here.

This painting tells the legendary story from 362 BCE when a great chasm opened in the Roman Forum. It could only be closed by sacrificing Rome’s greatest treasure, a conundrum that confused most Romans but was understood by the young soldier Marcus Curtius to be the bravery of its people. Marcus Curtius, here shown in full armor on his rearing horse, is about to sacrifice himself by leaping into the abyss.

Panini repeated this composition a number of times, probably after the first version now housed in the Fitzwilliam Museum (Cambridge, England, ca. 1730). The SCMA painting most closely related to one in the Louvre. The same subject, differently treated, can be seen in another painting in the collection by the nineteenth-century French artist Jean-Léon Gérôme.

Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1951.139

Research on objects in the collections, including provenance, is ongoing and may be incomplete. If you have additional information or would like to learn more about a particular object, please email fc-museums-web@fivecolleges.edu.

<< Viewing Record 289 of 495 >>