Triumph of Scipio: The Triumphal Carriage

Artist: Workshop of Heinrich Mattens
Title: Triumph of Scipio: The Triumphal Carriage
Date: c. 1550
Medium: Silk, wool, gold and silver thread
Dimensions: 29' x 13' 6"
Accession number: MSA SC 4680-30-0005

This tapestry is one of a series of twenty-two taperstries entitled The Triumph of Scipio. The tapestries visually recount the achievements of the Roman statesman and general "Scipio Africanus" (Publius Cornelis Scipio, 236-183 B.C.) during the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage. The Triumphal Carriage depicts Scipio outside the gates of Rome before the celebration of his triumph for his victory against Hannbal the Great at the Battle of Zama in 202 B.C.

The celebration of a Roman triumph, a civil ceremony and religious rite, was the highest honor a general could receive during the Roman Republic from the Sentate. One of the four legal requirements to be awarded a triumph by the Senate, was that a general had to be victorious in battle and kill at least 5,000 enemy troops.

Italian Renaissance artist Giulio Romano (1499-1546) created the drawings that served as the basis for the initial tapestries, which were woven in 1536. That series was so popular that several copies were made in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, including one woven for King Charles I of Spain about 1600 in the Brussels workshop of Heinrich Mattens. This particular set was eventually broken up and media magnate William Randolph Hearst bought two tapestries from the set (this one and Scipio Giving a Crown to Laelius) in 1910; these were presented to the Peabody Institute by the Hearst Foundation in 1961. They are among the finest Renaissance tapestries in the United States.

© Copyright October 06, 2022 Maryland State Archives