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Decius Mus Addressing the Legions
Sir Peter Paul Rubens·probably 1616
Historical Context
Decius Mus Addressing the Legions (probably 1616) is part of Rubens's cycle depicting the Roman consul Decius Mus, who sacrificed himself in battle to ensure Roman victory. The series was designed as tapestry cartoons for the Genoese nobleman Franco Cattaneo. The story of noble self-sacrifice had clear contemporary resonance in the war-torn Spanish Netherlands, and the military subject allowed Rubens to display his mastery of dramatic gesture and martial pageantry.
Technical Analysis
The monumental composition shows Rubens's ability to organize complex multi-figure scenes with clarity and drama. The heroic figure of Decius commands the center, with surrounding soldiers rendered in vigorous, confident brushwork on hardboard.
Look Closer
- ◆Decius Mus stands on a raised platform addressing rows of Roman legionaries, his commanding gesture establishing both narrative authority and compositional focus
- ◆The soldiers's shields and helmets create a repeating pattern of curves and reflective surfaces across the lower half of the composition
- ◆Roman military standards rise above the crowd, their eagles and insignia painted with archaeological attention to ancient sources Rubens studied in Rome
- ◆This modello for the Decius Mus tapestry cycle shows Rubens working out the monumental composition at a manageable scale
Condition & Conservation
Part of the Decius Mus tapestry cycle, this large canvas was a full-scale model for weavers. The painting has been in the National Gallery of Art since the mid-20th century. Conservation has addressed darkening in the shadows and stabilized areas of paint lifting along old canvas seams.
Provenance
Pierre-Louis-Paul Randon de Boisset [1709-1776], Paris; (his estate sale, Paris, 27 February 1777, no. 31).[1] Destouches, Paris; (his sale, A.J. LeBrun and Ph. Fr. Jueliot, Paris, 21 March 1794, no. 5); John Trumbull [1756-1843], Paris and New York; (his sale, Christie's, London, 17 February 1797, no. 25). Fritz August von Kaulbach [1850-1920], Munich;[2] (his estate sale, Hugo Helbing, Munich, 29-30 October 1929, no. 194);[3] (Galerie Nathan, Munich).[4] (Frederick Mont, Inc., New York);[5] sold 8 February 1955 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[6] gift 1957 to NGA. [1] Julius S. Held, _The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens. A Critical Catalogue_, 2 vols., Princeton, 1980: 1:25, questions whether NGA 1957.14.2 was in this sale because the catalogue describes the work as being on panel whereas an old inscription on the verso of the painting once indicated that it had been transferred from panel to canvas in 1773 (see note 3). Held's reservations, however, seem unwarranted since the description of the scene (even though the subject is wrongly interpreted as "Germanicus à qui on harangue ou donne des orders à cinq officiers...") and the dimensions conform to the Gallery's painting. [2] Oldenbourg, Rudolf, ed. _P.P. Rubens. Des Meisters Gemälde_. Berlin and Leipzig, 1921: 460. [3] An inscription on the verso of the painting was recorded in the 1929 sales catalogue as reading: "relevé de sure bois et remis sure toile par hacquin en 1773." [4] According to the annotated Hugo Helbing sale catalogue at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich, copy in NGA curatorial files and available online through the Heidelberg University library. [5] Colin Eisler, _Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian_, Oxford, 1977: 105, lists the Newhouse Galleries, New York, at this point in the provenance; Mont was associated with Newhouse. [6] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/652.
