18/6/24 – Art Market – Paris, Sotheby’s – After having installed his wife and children on a cart, the plebeian Lucius Albinus left as quickly as possible. It was in 390 BC, during the sack of Rome by the Gauls. In his flight he passed in front of the Vestal Virgins who were also trying to escape the enemy, forced to advance on foot and their arms loaded with all the sacred objects they could carry. Then Lucius Albinus made his family get off the cart to make way for the Vestal Virgins to lead them to safety, thus sacrificing his own. This example of piety was recounted by Livy in his History of Rome since its foundation.
- 1. Sébastien Bourdon (1616-1671)
Lucius Albinus offering his team to the Vestal Virgins during the sack of Rome in 390 BC
Oil on canvas – 106 x 136.2 cm
Sotheby’s sale, Paris on June 19, 2024
Photo: bbsg
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See the image on his page
The subject inspired several painters at different times, such as the Liégeois Bertholet Flémalle or Jean Bardin. Sébastien Bourdon also painted this exemplum virtutis in a painting put on sale by Sotheby’s on June 19 in Paris (ill. 1) of which a preparatory sketch is kept at the Pavlovsk Palace. Produced at the start of his career and disseminated through engraving, this work is one of the rare ones to be cited by Félibien in his Interviews : “ one of the most pleasant paintings he made in his early days “. The artist already shows his art of staging: the figures are cleverly arranged on several levels as in Augustus at the tomb of Alexander visible at the Louvre Museum. In the background stand two monuments, the Pantheon and the pyramid of Cestius which are not in reality side by side and which the artist was able to admire during his stay in Rome in 1635-1636.
- 2. Good Boullogne (1649-1717)
The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine
Oil on canvas – 41 x 34.5 cm
Sotheby’s Paris sale on June 19, 2024
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