Full title | Tanaquil |
---|---|
Artist | Domenico Beccafumi |
Artist dates | 1484 - 1551 |
Series | Classical Heroines from a Sienese Bedchamber |
Date made | about 1519 |
Medium and support | Oil on wood |
Dimensions | 92.1 x 53.3 cm |
Inscription summary | Inscribed |
Acquisition credit | Acquired by application of the 1956 Finance Act, 1965 |
Inventory number | NG6368 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
This panel is part of a series Beccafumi painted for the bedchamber of Francesco di Camillo Petrucci (b.1489), a wealthy merchant and landowner who was nephew of the ruler of the republic of Siena. The decorations were probably made to coincide with Francesco’s marriage to Caterina di Niccolò Mandoli Piccolomini in 1512 and were completed in 1519. Three of the six surviving panels from the series show Roman heroines – Tanaquil, Cornelia and Marcia – and they probably decorated the back of a bench seat.
Tanaquil persuaded her husband Lucumo to emigrate from Tarquinii to Rome, where he was elected king with the title Tarquinius Priscus. After his assassination she secured the political succession for their slave, Servius Tullius. The paintings of the three heroines each contain a Latin couplet in gilt lettering, most likely composed by the scholar who devised the decorative scheme for the bedchamber.
This panel is part of a series Beccafumi painted for the bedchamber of Francesco di Camillo Petrucci, a wealthy merchant and landowner who was nephew of Pandolfo Petrucci, the ruler of the republic of Siena. The decorations were probably made to coincide with Francesco’s marriage to Caterina di Niccolò Mandoli Piccolomini in 1512 and were completed in 1519.
Six of the paintings for Francesco and Caterina’s bedchamber still exist, though they are in different collections. Three show Roman heroines: Cornelia (Galleria Doria-Pamphilj, Rome), Marcia (National Gallery, London) and Tanaquil (National Gallery, London). Two depict the Roman festivals of Lupercalia and Cerealia (both Museo di Casa Martelli, Florence) and one shows Venus and Cupid (Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham). The panels of the three heroines probably decorated the back of a bench seat; the Venus and Cupid would have been attached to the bedhead; Lupercalia and Cerealia probably formed part of a decorative frieze in the wall panelling. It is possible that there were originally more paintings than these in the bedchamber but others have not yet been identified.
The three Roman heroines are surrounded by antique architectural fragments – Tanaquil stands by a broken obelisk and Cornelia by a broken column. At the feet of each is a stone tablet inscribed with an identifying Latin couplet. These do not directly quote any known source but contain allusions to multiple classical and early Renaissance texts and were probably invented by a learned advisor.
Though they do not look directly at the viewer, the heroines appear to speak, with parted lips and expressive gestures. Tanaquil points to herself and to the explanatory couplet, which translates as: ‘I am Tanaquil. In my prescience I created two kings, first my husband, then my slave.’ The principal source for Tanaquil’s story is Livy’s History of Rome. Tanaquil was an Etruscan noblewoman celebrated for her devotion to her husband and family. On his way to Rome, an eagle had flown off with her husband Lucumo’s hat and then returned it to him – Tanaquil had interpreted this to mean that the gods wanted him to become king and advised him to move to Rome. As a result of Tanaquil’s foresight and determination, Lucumo was crowned as Tarquin, fifth king of Rome. She raised her slave, Servius Tullius, as her own son believing he would be the next successor to the throne. One day while he was sleeping she saw his head surrounded by flames. Tanaquil took this as an omen of his greatness, and when her husband was murdered she hid the king’s death from his subjects and said he had asked Servius Tullius to rule in his place. Servius Tullius was later given the throne by popular support.
In this painting Tanaquil is depicted as a virtuous bride and wife, holding a spindle or distaff celebrating her domestic ability as a gifted spinner of wool. Tanaquil’s two premonitions of an eagle and flames may also relate to the Petrucci coat of arms, which features an eagle and a flame-like zigzag between the blue and gold background.
Marcia, in the National Gallery’s other panel, personified the virtues of marital fidelity and wifely obedience as well as fruitful maternity.
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Classical Heroines from a Sienese Bedchamber
These two Roman heroines, Marcia and Tanaquil, are part of a series of painted panels that decorated the bedchamber of Francesco di Camillo Petrucci (b. 1489), a wealthy merchant and landowner who was nephew of Pandolfo Petrucci, ruler of the republic of Siena. Celebrating themes of love, fertility, and wifely and maternal virtue, the decorations were probably made to coincide with Francesco’s marriage to Caterina di Niccolò Mandoli Piccolomini in 1512 and completed in about 1519.
Six of the paintings still exist, though they are in different collections. Three show Roman heroines (the one not in the National Gallery depicts Cornelia) and two feature the Roman festivals of Lupercalia and Cerealia, which were associated with male fertility and female fecundity. A painting of Venus and Cupid probably decorated the bedhead. The paintings of the three heroines and Lupercalia each contain a Latin couplet in gilt lettering likely to have been devised by the scholar responsible for the decorative programme.
These two heroines are part of a series of painted panels that decorated the bedchamber of Francesco di Camillo Petrucci (b. 1489), a wealthy merchant and landowner who was nephew of Pandolfo Petrucci, ruler of the republic of Siena. Celebrating themes of love, fertility, and wifely and maternal virtue, the decorations were probably made to coincide with Francesco’s marriage to Caterina di Niccolò Mandoli Piccolomini in 1512. Both families contributed to the costs of the furnishings. The work was finished in about 1519 after the birth of the couple’s first son.
After being toppled from government by Pandolfo’s exiled son, Francesco himself was exiled from Siena on 17 June 1526 and his possessions confiscated. On 26 July 1526 Beccafumi petitioned the Comune to obtain the final payment of 60 ducats for the work he had done for Francesco, which he described as ‘a bed with figures and round posts, with a frieze around the whole room and a bed-chest with pictures painted with fine colours, and all these things decorated with gold and fine blue, and an addition to the bed with figures, and all with gold and blue; for the which work, according to the judgment of a good and true master, he should have better than 180 ducats…’. The gold and blue colours were those of the Petrucci arms. In December 1527, a ruling was passed in Beccafumi’s favour and in February 1528 payment was made.
The decorations were associated with fertility, maternity, childbirth and generation. Six panels still exist, though they are in different collections. Three of them show Roman heroines (the one not in the National Gallery depicts Cornelia, and is in the Galleria Doria-Pamphilj, Rome). Two feature the Roman festivals of Lupercalia and Cerealia (both Museo de Casa Martelli, Florence) and one depicts Venus and Cupid (Barber Institute, Birmingham). The paintings of the heroines and Lupercalia each contain a Latin couplet in gilt lettering.
The three Roman heroines are all exemplars of wifely and maternal virtue, representing the stages through which a woman might proceed from beautiful young bride to reflective maternity and then virtuous widowhood. They may have been framed together, forming part of the top of the backboard of a bench. Venus and Cupid retains its original fictive frame and it is likely that it would have been attached to the bedhead. Lupercalia and Cerealia were probably part of a frieze set into wooden panelling on the upper part of the walls above shoulder height. Beccafumi’s description of them surrounding the whole room suggests that there were originally more panels in the frieze. Lupercalia and Cerealia were two Roman festivals described in Ovid’s Fasti associated with male fertility and female fecundity. They appear to be unique as a subject in pictorial art, suggesting that the decorations for the room were part of a scholarly programme. Lupercalia refers to the cave on the Palatine hill in which the she-wolf suckled Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome. The suckling twins can be seen at the right of Beccafumi’s painting. In Cerealia, Ceres, the goddess of growing things and of motherly love, is enshrined behind the altar decorated with garlands of corn. The architectural settings of these two paintings seem to reflect those in the furnishings for the famous Borgherini Bedchamber in Florence by Pontormo and others, suggesting that Beccafumi may have known it.


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