‘After this prayer, Decius Mus ordered the lictors to go to Titus Manlius and at once announce to his colleague that he had devoted himself to death on behalf of the army. Then slinging the end of his toga over his shoulder, the consul leaped upon his horse and dashed into the middle of the enemy.’ Even though Livy describes the moment of farewell as taking place not far from the battle, which is already raging, Rubens dispenses with the narrative context, isolating the scene described in the text.
‘After this prayer, Decius Mus ordered the lictors to go to Titus Manlius and at once announce to his colleague that he had devoted himself to death on behalf of the army. Then slinging the end of his toga over his shoulder, the consul leaped upon his horse and dashed into the middle of the enemy.’ Even though Livy describes the moment of farewell as taking place not far from the battle, which is already raging, Rubens dispenses with the narrative context, isolating the scene described in the text. Armed for the fray, the imposing figure of his hero echoes the Roman statue of Mars Ultor. Although the original from the temple of the same name in the Forum of Augustus in Rome is lost, a Roman copy of it has been preserved in the Capitoline Museums. From this, Rubens took the basic shape of the head and the type of helmet and armour. The military commander’s silhouette stands out impressively against the background, his pose expressing present and future simultaneously: still standing firmly on the ground with his left leg, he dismisses the lictors with a demonstrative gesture, yet his right hand is already grasping his horse, his right foot ready to swing himself onto its back. With heads bowed, the lictors reluctantly obey his order, glancing one last time over their shoulders to bid their consul farewell. With them they take the fasces (a bundle of rods bound round an axe), the emblem of his official powers. Thus Decius Mus takes leave of his office as consul before performing a final act of service for the Roman people. Between the consul and the lictors the background opens out into a landscape featuring the ruins of the Roman Temple of Minerva Medica, added by Rubens as a reminiscence of the time he spent in Italy.
Condition and conservation
The textile support of the painting “The Dismissal of the Lictors” consists of five lengths of linen fabric sewn together vertically. The painting was already lined (adhered to a secondary fabric support) at the end of the 17th century. The reason for the lining was most likely rooted in several older mechanical damages to the original canvas. Examinations showed that a continuous, vertically running tear extends through the middle of the painting – suggesting strongly that the painting was once folded in half. In addition, the lining canvas itself had a large hole in the lower left corner caused by mice eating away the secondary canvas to feed on the glue based adhesive underneath. Even though the lining helped to preserve the painting, this conservation technique also had its disadvantages; a presumably high moisture content during the lining process led to shrinkage of the original canvas, which subsequently caused localized paint layer compression and delamination. Visually disturbing were layers of degraded natural resin varnish and darkened overpaintings, which were applied over extensive and non-structured fills within areas of loss.
To help reestablish the structural integrity of the lining canvas, the hole in the lining canvas was fitted with a fabric inlay, and missing sections of tacking edges were strengthened with added strips of canvas. The reduction of the degraded older varnish layers increased the chromatic scale of the composition considerably. The painted image gained in luminosity and depth. With the removal of overpaintings, it was possible, in numerous areas, to uncover the hidden original paint layers. After consolidating unstable areas of the painting layer, all missing areas were filled, structured, and subsequently retouched. Surface varnish applications were done by hand and spraying using dissolved natural resins.
Applying the final varnish to the painting after conservation
