Triumph of Titus and Vespasian by GIULIO ROMANO
The painting by the painter and architect, a talented student of Raphael, one of the first representatives of mannerism, Giulio Romano, tells about the distant times of Roman history. To commemorate the victory over Judea, Emperor Vespasian and his son and heir Titus staged a magnificent triumphal procession, which became the plot of the work.
On a chariot drawn by four horses, Titus and Vespasian enter the triumphal arch specially erected for this occasion, crowned with laurel wreaths of the winners and accompanied by the flying figure of Nike, the goddess of victory. The composition of the picture unfolds according to the principle of the frieze. One gets the impression of endless movement, since neither the beginning nor the end of the solemn procession is visible. The procession disappears under the vault of the arch, the architecture of which is carefully written out by the artist, the former court architect at the court of Gonzaga.