Currently not on view
Julius Caesar Swimming to Safety in the Harbor of Alexandria,
ca. 1805–15
Felice Giani, Italian, 1758–1823
1997-91
This spectacular drawing by the Neoclassical painter Felice Giani depicts a rarely represented episode from Plutarch’s life of Julius Caesar: besieged by Ptolemy’s soldiers in the harbor of Alexandria, Caesar escaped by jumping from a small boat and swimming to safety, all the while holding aloft his Commentaries. While foregrounding Caesar’s heroic act, Giani delineated the city of Alexandria, with its lighthouse at center and equally famous library (in flames) at left.
Information
Title
Julius Caesar Swimming to Safety in the Harbor of Alexandria
Dates
ca. 1805–15
Maker
Medium
Brown ink and grey and brown wash
Dimensions
26.4 × 74.5 cm (10 3/8 × 29 5/16 in.)
frame: 45.4 × 88.7 × 2.9 cm (17 7/8 × 34 15/16 × 1 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Felton Gibbons Fund
Object Number
1997-91
Place Depicted
Egypt, Alexandria, Alexandria Port
Inscription
in graphite, on verso top center, framer's marks: fornice avec may | 655 | -ac =rouge | -image | fare l'trait
Culture
Type
Materials
Subject
Sale, Christie’s, New York, May 22, 1997, lot 2 (See reference Bib. ); Hill-Stone, Inc., New York; purchased by the Art Museum, 1997.;
- "Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1997," in "A Window into Collecting American Folk Art: The Edward Duff Balken Collection at Princeton," special issue, Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 57, no. 1/2 (1998): p. 164-208., p. 185
- 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. 108, cat. no. 44; p. 109 (illus.); p. 233, app. no. 25 (illus.)
