Caligula Depositing the Ashes of his Mother and Brother in the Tomb of his Ancestors
Artist: Eustache Le Sueur (French, 1616-1655)
Date: c. 1647
Medium: Oil on canvas
Collection: Royal Collection Trust, London, United Kingdom
Depicted People:
Caligula
Description
This scene is set in a graveyard with, to the right, the Pyramid of Gaius Cestius, a familiar Roman funereal landmark. Caligula is shown seated to the right with a laurel crown and baton of office. He gestures towards an elderly priest, who is in the act of placing one urn into one of the arches in the base of a sarcophagus, revealed by removing the slab of marble at his feet. A second urn rests on a tripod table at which kneels an acolyte. To the right, another priest looks on while, to the left, a group of soldiers strain forward to pay their respects with their standards and lances seen against the sky.
This work was painted in 1647 for Claude de Guénégaud for his Hôtel in the Marais (since destroyed) as one of a pair, though the other painting is now known only from preparatory drawings. The story this painting comes from Suetonius’ Life of Caligula, who began his reign on a wave of popularity and relief at the death of his predecessor, Tiberius. Caligula particularly impressed the Roman people by the piety with which he returned to Rome the ashes of his brothers and mother, exiled and murdered by Tiberius.
