Dionisio Dolfin, Patriarch of Aquileia, commissioned a series of ten paintings on themes from Roman history (five of which are now in the Hermitage) for his Venetian palace, known as the Ca' Dolfin. Here the artist presents a scene from the story of Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus (Livy, Roman History, II, 2). Accused of seeking dictatorship, he was expelled from Rome and sought refuge with the Volsci people, going on to lead their forces against Rome. The Roman Senate sent out an embassy to meet him, headed by his mother and his wife with their children. Meeting her son, his mother said that she would die rather than let him enter the city. Coriolanus stopped the attack. Tiepolo showed his hero from behind, his face half-hidden by the helmet, and the viewer's attention is thus drawn to the severe face of his mother as she prepares to pronounce her historic words.
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Title:
Coriolanus at the Walls of Rome
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oil
Dimensions:
387x224 cm
Acquisition date:
Originally in the Dolfin Palace, Venice; since the 1870s had been in the collection of Miller von Aichholz; subsequently in the A.A. Polovtsov collection; presented to the Museum of the Decorative and Applied Arts in 1887
Inventory Number:
ГЭ-7472
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