Painting Detail
Dictatorship Offered to CincinnatusArtist: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Medium: Painting, Oil on canvas, 387x227 cm
Date: c. 1730
Genre: History
Source: First Branch of the State Hermitage Museum, 1934
Dionisio Dolfin, Patriarch of Aquileia, commissioned a series of ten paintings on themes from Roman history for his Venetian palace, known as the Ca' Dolfin.
Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus was a Roman military commander famed for his simplicity and the modesty of his life, and much respected by his fellow countrymen. He abandoned his military affairs and retired to work on a small piece of land. When Rome was attacked by mountain tribes the Senate decided to appoint a dictator and sent envoys to Cincinnatus to beg him to take command and lead the battle. Cincinnatus was working in the field when the envoys arrived. He listened to the request and accepted the command, but when the Romans had defeated their enemies he returned to his former life . In Tiepolo's painting the envoys of the Senate are handing the fasces of power to Cincinnatus.