The patronage of the Roman woman (Rubens painting)

The Ocotism of the Roman Woman (Cimon and Feather) is a painting by Peter Paul Rubens from the collection of the State Hermitage .

Peter Paul Rubens

"The patronage of the Roman woman . " OK. 1612

Oil on canvas (translated from wood). 140.5 × 180.3 cm

State Hermitage Museum , St. Petersburg

( inv. )

The painting is an illustration of the ancient legend of mercy and devotion to daughter's duty. Here is how the Roman writer Valery Maxim expounds it in the work “Memorable Acts and Sayings”:

Let us now take as an example to follow the case of the piety of Perot. Her father Cimon, struck by a similar fate, was also taken into custody. And she fed him, quite old, as if a child, with her breast. With deep amazement, people's eyes look at a picture depicting that old case, and then its features are recalled, and it seems that living and breathing bodies wake up in these silent lines ^[1] .

For the execution of the figure, Cimona Rubens was inspired by the antique statue "The Leaned Hercules", which he painted during his stay in Italy in 1606-1608, this drawing is stored in the Ambrosian library in Milan ; the influence of Michelangelo ’s fresco “Intoxication of Noah” from the Sistine Chapel is also noticeable ^[2] .

The painting was painted around 1612 and subsequently belonged to the Bishop of Bruges, Karel van der Bosch , from whom she transferred to the collection of Count I.F. Kobenzl in Brussels , where in 1768 was purchased by Empress Catherine II and thus became one of the first paintings of the Hermitage collection. Exhibited in the building of the New Hermitage in room 247 ^[3] .

Rubens. "Kimon and Feather." 1630.

In 1630, Rubens painted the painting “Cimon and Feather” on a similar plot (oil on canvas, 155 × 190), which is stored in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.