Marcia

In 1512 Francesco di Camillo Petrucci, a rich Sienese merchant and nephew of Pandolfo Petrucci, the lord of Siena, married Caterina Piccolomini. The painting of his bedchamber seems to have followed, and this panel was finished around 1519. A learned adviser probably planned the scheme, which paired virtuous women of ancient Rome with its festivals, and six of its panels survive in different museums. Marcia was a model of Roman marriage. She was first wed to Cato, then at his suggestion took his friend Hortensius as her husband, and when Hortensius died she returned to Cato. Beccafumi has her raise one hand, while two fingers of the other rest on her belly, perhaps for the two husbands whose children she bore. The tablet leaning at her feet carries a Latin couplet in gilt letters, most likely composed for this room rather than taken from an ancient author.