The Elephants, from The Triumph of Julius Caesar
Andrea Mantegna (Italian, 1430/31-1506)
c. 1498
- Medium
- Engraving on paper
- Classification
- Dimensions
- 27.7 × 26.1 cm (10 15/16 × 10 5/16 in.)
- Culture
- Italy
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This engraving depicts Julius Caesar entering Rome after his conquest of Gaul in 46 b.c., the greatest military victory of his career. Dante was not afraid of making his political opinions known in the Inferno; the three worst traitors in history—Julius Caesar’s assassins, Brutus, Cassius, and Judas Iscariot—dangle from the mouth of Lucifer in the final circle of hell. After his assassination, Caesar himself would join Orpheus in Dante’s limbo.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
