Lot 93: The Fall of Rome

François Chauveau (Paris 1616-1676)
The Fall of Rome
pen and brown ink, grey wash, partly incised, the verso rubbed for transfer
10 x 7½ in. (255 x 191 mm.)

M. de Marignane (L. 1872), and to his son
H. de Marignane (L. 1343a).

This is a study in reverse for Chauveau's illustration for 'Livre X' of Georges de Scudéry's epic poem, Alaric ou Rome vaincue, dedicated to Queen Christina of Sweden and published in Paris in 1654. Chauveau produced an illustration for each of the ten 'Livres' and added a frontispiece.
The poem in 11,000 Alexandrines relates the conquest of Rome by Alaric (370-410), King of the Visigoths. Today largely forgotten, Scudéry's book enjoyed great fame during the 17th Century and was re-published several times. This drawing shows the great fire that followed the incursion of Alaric's troops into Rome: 'Le feu qui des maisons fait sa funeste proye, N'eut jamais de tel jour depuis la nuit de Troye... Car des palais tombez par la flâme allumée, Volle confusément la poudre et la fumée: Et le sang des Romains qui s'y mesle à grands flots. Donne de la tendresse au coeur mesme des Goths' (Livre X, p. 423 of the original edition).