Tanaquil
Artist: Domenico Beccafumi (Italian, 1484 - 1551)
Original Dimensions: 36 1/4" x 21"
Location: National Gallery of Art, London
About Artwork: (About 1519) "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." - (National Gallery of Art, London)

Panel content
Panel content