The Triumph of
Marius
Giovanni Battista
Tiepolo (Italian, Venice 1696–1770 Madrid)
Date: 1729. Medium: Oil on canvas. Dimensions:
Irregular painted surface, 220 x 128 5/8 in. (558.8 x 326.7 cm)
The
subject of this triumphal procession is identified by a Latin inscription at
the top of the canvas from the Roman historian Lucius Anneus Florus (Epitome of
Roman History, 36:17): "The Roman people behold Jugurtha laden with
chains." The African king Jugurtha is shown descending a hill before his
captor, the Roman general Gaius Marius. A youth beats a tambourine while other
figures carry booty, including a bust of the mother goddess Cybele. The
thirty-year-old Tiepolo included his portrait among the figures at the left.
The procession was held on January 1, 104 B.C.
The picture—a masterpiece of Tiepolo's early maturity—is from a series of ten
canvases painted about 1725–29 to decorate the main room of the Ca' Dolfin,
Venice. [The Metropolitan Museum of Art]
