Hieronymus Francken (II) – Horatius Cocles Defends the Bridge, 1620

by Atelier Liesjes

On the wooden bridge over the Tiber, a single man stands alone against overwhelming odds. Horatius Cocles, clad in green armour with a red plume on his helmet, raises his sword and holds his round, red shield before him; his bare legs are spread wide, his feet in sandals on the planks. At his feet, two Roman soldiers are falling backwards into the water, their bodies half within the picture, their arms still raised. On the right, enemy soldiers are advancing, armed with lances, a large decorated shield and faces barely visible beneath their helmets. In the bottom left corner lies a broken section of the bridge; behind the smoke and dust, the walls and a tower of a city loom into view.
Here, Francken recounts one of the most famous stories from Roman history: in 508 BC, Horatius Cocles is said to have defended the Pons Sublicius until the bridge behind him had collapsed, after which he leapt into the Tiber in full armour. The composition is deliberately theatrical: the hero in the centre, the enemy as a dark mass on the right, the distance as a pale backdrop. The colours are subdued: olive green, steel grey, ochre, red and the bronze of the armour; the sky is heavy and greenish, as if filled with smoke. The style is Baroque history painting with a Rubenesque colour scheme and strong, almost Mannerist anatomies. In several places, older retouching and slight loss of paint are visible – traces of four centuries of history that lend the work extra character.
Hieronymus Francken (II) (Antwerp 1578 – 1623) was a Southern Netherlandish Baroque painter from the Francken family, who became a master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1607. In addition to still lifes and genre pieces, he painted religious and historical scenes in a style influenced by Rubens.
A powerful, dramatic historical painting about courage and sacrifice – an eye-catcher with a story to tell.