{"id":7861,"date":"2024-11-28T09:05:39","date_gmt":"2024-11-28T08:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pinacotecafaenza.it\/?post_type=opera&p=7861"},"modified":"2026-03-06T15:57:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T14:57:59","slug":"rhea-silvia","status":"publish","type":"opera","link":"https:\/\/www.pinacotecafaenza.it\/en\/opera\/rhea-silvia\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhea Silvia"},"content":{"rendered":"

The painting is paired with Caecilia Metella<\/a> and Aemilia the Vestal Virgin<\/a>
\n
\nSilvia, Caecilia Metella<\/em> and Aemilia the Vestal Virgin<\/em> form a single group in terms of format, subject matter and collecting history. The three women were all major figures in ancient Rome in the days of the Republic, the paintings depicting episodes that capture the tragedy of each woman\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n

According to both Livy and Quintus Ennius, Rhea Silvia was the daughter of Numitor, the Latin King of Alba Longa. She was forced to embrace chastity and to become a recluse in the Temple of Vesta by her uncle Amulius, after he usurped her father\u2019s throne, in order to prevent her from giving birth to a potential rival to the throne. Rhea Silvia, however, was seduced by Mars and gave birth to Romulus and Remus, who grew up to avenge their grandfather and their mother by slaying Numitor. Giani has chosen to depict an episode of female solidarity reflecting the somewhat less bloodthirsty version of the story as told by Dionysius of Halicarnassus in his Roman Antiquities<\/em>: Princess Anto (on the left) helps her cousin Rhea Silvia, heavy with child (on the right), in prison.<\/p>\n

The scene takes place in a sombre interior whose complexity lies in the rich and mysterious decorations such as torches, sculptures or wall paintings, and inscriptions on the walls and on an altar.<\/p>\n

Giani\u2019s highly individual style with its typically rapid brushwork may point to the direct influence of \u201ccompendiary painting\u201d, a sketchy style popular in ancient Rome, which the artist had studied at first hand in the decorations of the period.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":4758,"template":"","tag-opera":[],"tecnica":[60],"class_list":["post-7861","opera","type-opera","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tecnica-oil-on-canvas"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinacotecafaenza.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opera\/7861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinacotecafaenza.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opera"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinacotecafaenza.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/opera"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinacotecafaenza.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opera\/7861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7879,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinacotecafaenza.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opera\/7861\/revisions\/7879"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinacotecafaenza.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinacotecafaenza.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"tag-opera","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinacotecafaenza.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tag-opera?post=7861"},{"taxonomy":"tecnica","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinacotecafaenza.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tecnica?post=7861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}