Volumnia Before Coriolanus
Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Volumnia Before Coriolanus, 1674, oil on canvas, Museum Purchase, public domain, 2005.19
This work is not currently on view.
- Title
Volumnia Before Coriolanus
- Artist
- Date
1674
- Medium
oil on canvas
- Dimensions (H x W x D)
83 1/4 in x 66 1/4 in
- Inscriptions & Markings
signature; date: G. vanden Eeckhout. fecit. // A 1674., brushed, bottom middle
- Collection Area
European Art
- Category
Paintings
- Object Type
painting
- Culture
Dutch
- Credit Line
Museum Purchase
- Accession Number
2005.19
- Copyright
public domain
- Terms
Dutch artists used Roman history to address civic virtue. Following his exile from Rome, Coriolanus led the army of a warring neighbor state to victory. Poised to destroy Rome, he was dissuaded by a delegation of women—including his mother and his wife. Plutarch (45–125 CE), whose account Shakespeare follows in his play Coriolanus, identifies Volumnia as the hero's mother who, throwing herself at his feet, declares he will have to trample her to march on to Rome.
Eeckhout, a pupil of Rembrandt (1606–1669), became his life-long friend. Depicting the heroes of antiquity as Dutch men, women, and children of his own time, Eeckhout remained true to Rembrandt's ethic of earthy realism.
