Tarquinius Priscus Entering Rome

Jacopo da Sellaio's Tarquinius Priscus Entering Rome depicts the legendary fifth king of Rome's triumphal entry into the city, a subject from Livy's histories that was popular in Florentine cassone painting — the decorated chests given as wedding gifts in which ancient Roman history served as moral exemplum for the recipients' new domestic life. Sellaio worked as a painter of these narrative cassone fronts alongside altarpiece panels in Florence during the late 15th century, a market that required rapid narrative storytelling in a horizontal format and facility with the pageant-like processions of figures that characterized Roman historical subjects.

The cassone format imposes a horizontal frieze composition suited to processions and entries: figures moving across the panel from left to right, architectural backdrop establishing the city, horses and attendants creating a rhythm of repeated forms. Sellaio handles the crowd with the decorative, somewhat schematic approach typical of cassone painting — figures differentiated by costume color rather than individual characterization.