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Romulus, the founder of Rome
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Romulus, the founder of Rome, is portrayed in this painting. The painting is part of the famous collection of prominent people’s portraits, which has been hanging in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence since 1587. These portraits are copies of the “Giovio Series” ordered by the humanist Paolo Giovio for his Museo di Giovio a Borgovico on Lake Como. Paolo Giovio is one of the key figures for Italian art of the XVI century; Rafael painted his “Madonna Alba” on his order, and he gave Vasari the idea to compose his famous “Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects”. Most of the portraits from the original “Giovio Series” have not survived to the present day.

The copies that now hang in the Uffizi were painted by Cristofano dell’Altissimo, an apprentice of the great Pontormo and Bronzino, on the order of Cosimo I Medici. The artist spent 37 years copying portraits, working from 1552 to 1589. Not all of them have survived in Uffizi’s collection, and our portrait of Romulus is one of the few works that are located in private collections.

Size: 61 x 47 cm.