The sacrificial death of Marcus Curtius

The story is told by Livy, the Roman historian. In 362 BC a chasm opened in the middle of the Roman Forum, and the seers declared it would close only when Rome threw in the thing it valued most. A young soldier, Marcus Curtius, said that Rome had nothing more precious than arms and courage, and rode fully armed into the gap, which closed over him. Veronese painted the leap around 1550 to 1552, at the very start of his career, on a round canvas almost two and a half metres across. The museum points to its bold perspective, meant to surprise, and thinks the picture may once have been set into a ceiling, to be looked at from below.