10 Works, Today, March 13th. is artist Pierre-Narcisse Guérin’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #071
Mar 13, 2022
Death of Cato the Younger
Award-winning entry for the Prix de Rome (1797)
Oil on canvas
123 × 163 cm
Musée de Tessé, Le Mans, France.
Cato the Younger (95–46 BCE) was a pivotal figure in Rome during the first century BCE. A defender of the Roman Republic, he forcefully opposed Julius Caesar and was known as the highly moral, incorruptible, inflexible supporter of the Optimates. When it became clear at the Battle at Thapsus that Julius Caesar would be the political leader of Rome, Cato chose the philosophically accepted way out, suicide, by stabbing himself with his own sword…
Pierre-Narcisse, baron Guérin (13 March 1774–6 July 1833) was a French painter born in Paris…