VENETIAN SCHOOL, 17th CENTURY Portia swallows hot coals Oil...

VENETIAN SCHOOL, 17th CENTURY

Portia swallows hot coals
Oil on canvas, cm. 99x86,5. Framed
Daughter of Marco Porcio Cato and wife of Marco Giunio Bruto, Porzia, in line with the ideals of her father first and her husband later, devoted her life to the struggle against the growing power of Julius Caesar. Following the Ides of March, in which Marco Giunio Brutus himself took part, she was forced to flee from Rome with her husband, first to Anzio and subsequently to Naples, finally only her husband continued the flight to Greece. Therefore forced to return to Rome, Portia became a symbol of resistance against tyranny and her submission when she, learning of her husband's death in Philippi, she committed suicide by swallowing hot coals.