Arthur Willmore
English, 1814 - 1888After J. M. W. Turner
English, 1775 - 1851Ancient Rome, 1859-1861; published 1880
Not on view
Steel engraving on paper
Dimensions10 3/4 × 14 7/8 in. (27.3 × 37.8 cm)
Image: 7 5/8 × 10 5/8 in. (19.4 × 27 cm)
Gift of Mrs. Fenton Davison, 1972.57.4
The original painting, created ten years after Turner’s final visit to Rome, tells the story of Agrippina bringing her husband Germanicus’s ashes back home. Germanicus, the adopted son of the Roman Emperor Tiberius, was the father of Caligula, and the grandfather of Nero. He died at Antioch, victim of either poison or magic. This story had long been popular with history painters as an exemplum virtutis (virtuous example) of a dutiful wife.
