Tiepolo, The Triumph of Marius

This is a painting that I walk in front of every day. As soon as I enter into the Museum, I see it down from the Great Hall. As I go up, the figure of Marius in his chariot starts emerging from the staircase. And it’s only once I get to the end of the staircase that I suddenly realize there is this huge group of people towering over me. It’s very melodramatic and operatic. It’s as if the curtain has just lifted on the scene and this is all happening on a stage. This scene is set in ancient Rome. I am originally from Rome; I grew up there. Here is this piece of my past in front of me as I’m going to work. Every time the Romans won a war they would have a huge triumphal procession. In this case is the victory of the war between the Romans and the Numidians. There are people rejoicing, there are captives, there are people carrying vases and sculptures and various idols that have been taken away from Numidia. Jugurtha was the king of the Numidians. He’s there in chains, he’s in armor, he’s wearing this incredible red drapery. And I like to think of Tiepolo here as being an opera director, trying to place his characters within this scene. In opera, someone that wears red is always the person you’re going to notice first. The picture should all be about Marius, about the fact that he did win the war, but there isn’t just one story that’s told here. The inscription at the top of the painting reads: “And the people of Rome behold Jugurtha laden with chains.” So suddenly the scene becomes not so much about the winner, but about the loser. And this is the same in a film or in a book, where your feeling about different characters changes and shifts. I tend to sometimes sympathize more with the complex personality of the bad character. Tiepolo’s style, and the same is true for opera, is that more is more. I find it personally a very good thing. Even if you don’t like opera, you must understand that behind this huge theatrical depiction are very basic emotions that we all experience. And of course it’s the way those emotions are dressed up. When I see this picture, I have to forget about everything that’s happening around it and just focus on the basic. There is a story about how all of us win and lose at some points in our lives and how we do that. Jugurtha is winning with his incredible dignity. It’s capturing that subtlety in life. Besides the typical historical narrative, it relates ultimately to our lives and our feelings.