Men and women line up to either side of a man seated on a throne in this long, horizontal painting. The people are painted in shades of white and gray so they resemble marble statues against a background streaked with rust red and gray, resembling marble. About a third of the way into the composition from the left, the throne is atop a three-stepped platform. A cleanshaven man sits on the throne facing our right in profile. He has short, curly hair and wears a toga under a breastplate. He lifts one hand, the forefinger slightly extended, and his lips are parted. The side of the throne we see is in the shape of a creature with a person’s face, chest and front legs of a lion, tail of a serpent, and wings. A greyhound-like dog sits on the first of the three steps. Some of the dozen men lined up to the left of the throne wear armor and hold lances or daggers. One man stands with one hand across his chest and the other across his groin. Another man stands with his back to us, one ankle crossed in front of the other. Sixteen men and women and three horses stand in a line to the right of the throne. Two women are near the front of the line. The one closest to the throne holds an urn. A man just behind her holds a larger urn propped up on one shoulder. The other men wear armor or togas. One man is half again as tall as anyone else. A rectangular plaque just to the right of the throne appears to be carved with the words, “TVRPIVS IMPER VENERE Q AR MIS VINCI.”
Read the visual description

Men and women line up to either side of a man seated on a throne in this long, horizontal painting. The people are painted in shades of white and gray so they resemble marble statues against a background streaked with rust red and gray, resembling marble. About a third of the way into the composition from the left, the throne is atop a three-stepped platform. A cleanshaven man sits on the throne facing our right in profile. He has short, curly hair and wears a toga under a breastplate. He lifts one hand, the forefinger slightly extended, and his lips are parted. The side of the throne we see is in the shape of a creature with a person’s face, chest and front legs of a lion, tail of a serpent, and wings. A greyhound-like dog sits on the first of the three steps. Some of the dozen men lined up to the left of the throne wear armor and hold lances or daggers. One man stands with one hand across his chest and the other across his groin. Another man stands with his back to us, one ankle crossed in front of the other. Sixteen men and women and three horses stand in a line to the right of the throne. Two women are near the front of the line. The one closest to the throne holds an urn. A man just behind her holds a larger urn propped up on one shoulder. The other men wear armor or togas. One man is half again as tall as anyone else. A rectangular plaque just to the right of the throne appears to be carved with the words, “TVRPIVS IMPER VENERE Q AR MIS VINCI.”

National Gallery of Art · Painting

An Episode from the Life of Publius Cornelius Scipio

Giovanni Bellini

Date
after 1506
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 74.8 x 356.2 cm (29 7/16 x 140 1/4 in.) framed: 104.1 x 385.1 x 10.5 cm (41 x 151 5/8 x 4 1/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
1952.2.7
Credit line
Samuel H. Kress Collection
Time span
1501 to 1550
Department
CIS-R

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • Venetian
  • classical
  • secular
  • Renaissance
  • Italian Paintings of the Sixteenth Century
  • Scipio, Publius Cornelius
Provenance

Probably commissioned by Francesco Cornaro, Palazzo Corner-Mocenigo a San Polo, Venice. Sir John Charles Robinson [1824-1913], London; sold 1873 to Sir Francis Cook, 1st Bt. [1817-1901], Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey;[1] by inheritance to his son, Sir Frederick Lucas Cook, 2nd Bt. [1844-1920], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Herbert Frederick Cook, 3rd Bt. [1868-1939], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook, 4th Bt. [1907-1978], Doughty House, and Cothay Manor, Somerset; sold February 1948 to (Gualtiero Volterra, London) for (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence);[2] sold March 1949 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1952 to NGA. [1] Maurice Brockwell, _Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, in the Collection of Sir Herbert Cook_, London, 1932: no. 133. [2] See copies of correspondence in NGA curatorial files, from the Cook Collection Archive in care of John Somerville, England. Volterra was Contini-Bonacossi's agent in London. [3] The Kress Foundation made an offer to Contini Bonacossi on 4 March 1949 for a group of twenty-one paintings, including the Bellini; the offer was accepted on 10 March 1949 (see copies of correspondence in NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/225).

Inscription

upper center on plaque: TVRPIVS / IMPER / VENERE / .Q. A. / MIS AI

NGA object ID 41589. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.