The Triumphs of Caesar: 3. The Bearers of Trophies and Bullion

No ancient writer left Mantegna a full description of Caesar's triumph over Gaul. Suetonius mentions it only briefly. Plutarch's life of Caesar, in print in a Latin translation by 1470, says a little more. For the rest Mantegna had to piece things together, probably with help from Roma triumphans, a book by the humanist Flavio Biondo that set out how Roman triumphs had been staged. What arrives in this third canvas is the loot. A cart is stacked with captured weapons and armour, and a crescent-shaped shield decorated with mythological figures hangs above the marchers. Men carry precious vessels, one of them a shining metal bowl heaped with gold coins. Among them walks a young man in brightly coloured clothes, carrying a halberd, and he is the one who turns and looks straight out of the picture at us.