Currently not on view
Study for the Death of Atilius Regulus,
ca. 1652
Salvator Rosa, 1615–1673; born Naples, Italy; died Rome, Italy
x1948-610
In addition to his popular scenes of banditry and witchcraft, Rosa created paintings with themes derived from antiquity and the philosophy of Stoicism, which emphasized an adherence to reason and indifference to the vicissitudes of fortune. Rosa’s The Death of Regulus (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts) for which this drawing is a preliminary sketch, serves as an example of such a classical subject with a Stoic sensibility. Atilius Regulus was a stalwart Roman consul and general whom the Carthaginians tortured to death in a nail studded barrel. Although the spatial specifics of the large scene have not yet been worked out, here Rosa anchored the central group of torturers with the juxtaposition of two ovals: the soldier’s shield and the barrel’s lid, where sharp nails are indicated with pale brown wash brushstrokes.
Information
Title
Study for the Death of Atilius Regulus
Dates
ca. 1652
Maker
Medium
Pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash on beige laid paper
Dimensions
20.3 × 25.7 cm (8 × 10 1/8 in.)
frame: 41.9 × 54.6 × 2.5 cm (16 1/2 × 21 1/2 × 1 in.)
Credit Line
Bequest of Dan Fellows Platt, Class of 1895
Object Number
x1948-610
Marks/Labels/Seals
Watermark: Sun with twelve rays within a circle
Reference Numbers
Gibbons 522
Culture
Type
Materials
Subject
From Mahoney thesis, 1965: “ca. 1652”, mentioned by artist in 1666 letter as many years earlier. (See reference Bib. 4511);
- Walter Vitzthum, "Seicento drawings at the Cabinet des Dessins", Burlington magazine 102, no. 683 (Feb., 1960): p. 73-76., p. 76, fig. 38
- Luigi Salerno, Salvator Rosa, (Florence: G. Barbera Editore,1963)., pp. 121-122, under no. 33
-
Michael R. J. Mahoney, The drawings of Salvator Rosa, Thesis (PhD). University of London (Courtauld Institute of Art), 1965.
, p. 259-60, no. 42.1 - Jacob Bean, Italian drawings in the Art Museum, Princeton University; 106 selected examples, (New York: October House, 1966)., no. 14
- Michael Mahoney, The drawings of Salvator Rosa, (New York; London: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1977)., 369, vol. 1 (illus. no. 32.5, vol. 2)
- Felton Gibbons, Catalogue of Italian Drawings in The Art Museum, Princeton University, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977).
- Richard W. Wallace, Salvator Rosa in America: catalogue, (Wellesley, MA: Wellesley College Museum, Jewett Arts Center, 1979).,
- Richard W. Wallace, The Etchings of Salvator Rosa, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1979)., no. 110
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1980", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 40, no. 1 (1981): p. 14-31., p. 20 (illus.)
- Laura Giles, Lia Markey, Claire Van Cleave, et. al., Italian Master Drawings from the Princeton University Art Museum, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2014)., p. 100, cat. no. 42; p. 102 (illus.)
