Art Institute of Chicago

Death of Atilius Regulus

Salvator Rosa

Date

1662

Medium

Etching with drypoint on thick ivory laid paper

Culture

Italy

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Salvator Rosa paired this large-scale etching with a similarly oversize print of the crucifixion of Polycrates (the painting is also in the Art Institute collection, 1942.292). He dedicated this etching—depicting the gruesome end of the stalwart Roman consul Atilius Regulus at the hands of the Carthaginians—to his best friend, Giovanni Battista Riccardi, urging him to stay strong in the face of adverse fortune, just as Atilius Regulus “remains a firm center in the midst of so many nails.”

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