Provenance
Pierre-Louis-Paul Randon de Boisset [1709-1776], Paris; (his estate sale, Paris, 27 February 1777, no. 31).[1] Destouches, Paris; (his sale, A.J. LeBrun and Ph. Fr. Jueliot, Paris, 21 March 1794, no. 5); John Trumbull [1756-1843], Paris and New York; (his sale, Christie's, London, 17 February 1797, no. 25). Fritz August von Kaulbach [1850-1920], Munich;[2] (his estate sale, Hugo Helbing, Munich, 29-30 October 1929, no. 194);[3] (Galerie Nathan, Munich).[4] (Frederick Mont, Inc., New York);[5] sold 8 February 1955 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[6] gift 1957 to NGA.
[1] Julius S. Held, _The Oil Sketches of Peter Paul Rubens. A Critical Catalogue_, 2 vols., Princeton, 1980: 1:25, questions whether NGA 1957.14.2 was in this sale because the catalogue describes the work as being on panel whereas an old inscription on the verso of the painting once indicated that it had been transferred from panel to canvas in 1773 (see note 3). Held's reservations, however, seem unwarranted since the description of the scene (even though the subject is wrongly interpreted as "Germanicus à qui on harangue ou donne des orders à cinq officiers...") and the dimensions conform to the Gallery's painting.
[2] Oldenbourg, Rudolf, ed. _P.P. Rubens. Des Meisters Gemälde_. Berlin and Leipzig, 1921: 460.
[3] An inscription on the verso of the painting was recorded in the 1929 sales catalogue as reading: "relevé de sure bois et remis sure toile par hacquin en 1773."
[4] According to the annotated Hugo Helbing sale catalogue at the Zentralinstitut für Kunstgeschichte, Munich, copy in NGA curatorial files and available online through the Heidelberg University library.
[5] Colin Eisler, _Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian_, Oxford, 1977: 105, lists the Newhouse Galleries, New York, at this point in the provenance; Mont was associated with Newhouse.
[6] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/652.
Accession Number
1957.14.2
Medium
oil on hardboard, transferred from wood and canvas
Dimensions
overall: 80.7 x 84.7 cm (31 3/4 x 33 3/8 in.) | framed: 105.1 x 109.2 x 12.7 cm (41 3/8 x 43 x 5 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Samuel H. Kress Collection
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Canvas Board Flemish
Background & Context
Background Story
Decius Mus Addressing the Legions is part of Rubens' monumental cycle depicting the story of the Roman consul Publius Decius Mus, who sacrificed himself in battle to secure victory for Rome. The composition shows the dramatic moment when Decius Mus, having interpreted the auguries as foretelling his death, addresses his troops with the eloquence and gravitas that Rubens brought to all his historical subjects. The figures are arranged in a dynamic composition that sweeps the viewer's eye from the speaking consul to the listening soldiers, creating a visual rhetoric that matches the verbal rhetoric of Decius Mus' address.
Cultural Impact
The Decius Mus cycle was one of Rubens' first major commissions for tapestry designs, and its success established him as the leading artist of the Counter-Reformation. The subject was chosen for its parallels to the Christian ideal of self-sacrifice—Decius Mus dies so that Rome may live, just as Christ dies so that humanity may be saved. Rubens' treatment of the subject combines Roman historical painting with Christian allegory, creating a secular narrative that carries a religious message.
Why It Matters
Decius Mus Addressing the Legions is Rubens' historical rhetoric at its most persuasive: a Roman consul addressing his troops with the same visual eloquence that Rubens brought to the pulpit and the altarpiece. The composition sweeps from speaker to audience, creating a visual argument that parallels the verbal argument of Decius Mus' speech.
