Pompeius voor de censors Gellius en Lentulus 1799

This engraving of Pompeius before the censors Gellius and Lentulus, was made by Ludwig Gottlieb Portman, a Swiss artist, in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. It depicts a scene from Roman history, likely intended to speak to contemporary social issues through the lens of the past. The image recreates a famous episode of political conflict, which will have resonated with the increasingly politically engaged public audience for art in Portman’s time. The architecture, clothing, and the very subject matter of the image invokes the history of Roman civic virtue and authority, but the relatively informal composition hints at the artist’s own interpretation of the event. Portman, who worked across Europe, here takes an interest in institutions and their relation to the social order. Was he reflecting on the role of the state, or perhaps the corruption of political institutions? To know more, we might consult primary source documents from the period, such as letters and newspapers, and also compare this image with other artworks depicting similar subjects. We can then consider the artist's intentions and the artwork’s social and institutional context.