Title: The Assassination and Funeral of Julius Caesar
Artist: workshop of Apollonio di Giovanni (Italian [Florentine], 1414-1465)
Date: between 1455 and 1460 (Quattrocento)
Genre: historical painting
Movement: Renaissance
Medium: Tempera on panel, transferred to canvas mounted on pressed hardboard and cradled
Dimensions: 39.5 cm (15.5 in) high x 126.7 cm (49.8 in) long
Location: Art Institute of Chicago, IL, USA
This work, created to decorate a marriage chest (cassone), depicts events at the end of Caesar's life in sequence. At left, the conspirators gather, while Artemidorus of Cnidus approaches Caesar with a message warning of the plot, which Caesar declines to read. At center, the conspirators strike Caesar with their styluses. At right, Caesar's bloody body is laid on a bier for his public funeral.
Apollonio di Giovanni di Tommaso headed a successful workshop that produced cassoni for Florentine aristocrats. Other productions from his workshop now in the Art Institute of Chicago include a depiction of scenes from the voyages of Odysseus and an illustration of the battle between Pompey and Caesar at Pharsalus.