The Triumphs of Caesar: 2. The Bearers of Standards and Siege Equipment

In 1486 Ercole d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, visited Mantua and was shown a work still in progress, the Triumphs of Caesar that Mantegna was painting for the Gonzaga court. It is the earliest record of the series, and in 1492 it was still unfinished. This second canvas suggests why it took so long. Mantegna was rebuilding an ancient Roman procession from texts and from the fragments of antique sculpture that he and other collectors of his day prized. Carts carry colossal statues of gods, and attendants carry smaller ones by hand. Behind a bust of the goddess Cybele stands a tablet whose inscription celebrates Caesar's victories in Gaul. Further back come more carts, pulled by horses and oxen and piled with weapons and armour, and then the siege machinery. The battering ram ends in a carved ram's head, dark against the sky.