The Triumph of Marius

The Triumph of Marius

The Triumph of Marius

Artist:
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)
Classification:
Paintings
Credit Line:
Rogers Fund, 1965

This painting is from a series of ten magnificent canvases painted to decorate the main room of Ca’ Dolfin, Venice. The subject of this triumphal procession is identified by the Latin inscription at the top of the painting, from the Roman historian Lucius Anneus Florus: "The people of Rome behold Jugurtha laden with chains". The African king Jugurtha is shown before his captor, the Roman general Gaius Marius. The procession was held on January 1, 104 B.C. The crowds carry booty, including a bust of the mother goddess Cybele. The thirty-year-old Tiepolo included his self-portrait among the figures on the left.

provenance
Ca' Dolfin, Venice (until 1872); Daniele III (Giovanni) and Daniele IV (Gerolamo) Dolfin, Ca' Dolfin (until both d. 1729); Dolfin family, Ca' Dolfin (1729–98); Cecilia Dolfin Lippomano, Ca' Dolfin (from 1798); by descent to Gasparo Lippomano, Ca' Dolfin (until d. 1854); his nephew, conte Giovanni Querini Stampalia, Ca' Dolfin (1854–d. 1868); [Michelangelo Guggenheim, Venice, by 1870–72; sold for 50,000 lire to von Aichholz]; Baron Eugen Miller von Aichholz, Palast Aichholz, Vienna (1872–d. 1919; his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, April 15, 1876, no. 3, as "Rentrée triomphale d'Aurélien après la guerre d'Asie," 480 x 370 cm [sic], bought in); Camillo Castiglioni, Palast Aichholz, Vienna (1919–35; pledged as collateral security for a loan in 1932; transferred to Mendl in 1935); Dr. Stefan Mendl, Zürich, later New York and Saranac Lake, N.Y. (1935–d. 1955; his estate, 1955–65; sold to MMA)

Copyright Image
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