The Triumph of Camillus

Biagio d'Antonio and Workshop

National Gallery of Art

Winding from our right to left, a procession of dozens of people, mostly men and many in black and gray armor on foot and horseback, weaves through rocky hills to the gates of a city in this long, horizontal painting. The people we can see have light skin, and they are small in scale against the landscape. Throughout the procession, dogs nip at the heels of horses that walk, rear, or buck. Many of the armored men carry tall spears. The men not wearing armor mostly wear crimson-red robes over black stockings or short black tunics over stockings with one white leg and one mauve-pink leg. To our right, a man wearing black armor and a black wreath around his blond hair rides a gold throne on a large, gold platform being pulled by two cream-white horses. A gold canopy hangs over his head. Facing our left in profile, he points a scepter down at a person sitting in front of him, lower down on the base. That person wears a simple, lilac-purple tunic and slouching, denim-blue boots as he turns and looks up at the crowned man, hands raised. Three men and one woman sit in alcoves on the side of the base facing us with their hands behind their backs. The men wear black armor while the woman wears a muted sea-green dress. The letters “SPQR” are written in gold across the chest of a rider to our right. The procession in front of the throne passes around a tall golden structure like a fountain. At the top of that structure, a woman surrounded by gold rays to create an ellipse. The soldiers at the front of the procession cross a short, arched bridge leading into the city, and one rider carries a gold banner with a stylized, splayed black bird. Towers and domes in shades of cream, coral, and pink peek above the crenelated city wall. To our right, the landscape beyond the procession is dotted with trees leading to rocky mountains in the deep distance. The horizon line comes four-fifths of the way up the composition. A few wispy white clouds float across a sky that deepens from white along the horizon to lapis blue across the top edge of the panel.