The Assassination and Funeral of Julius Caesar

Workshop of Apollonio di Giovanni · 1455/60

Medium

Tempera on panel, transferred to canvas mounted on pressed hardboard and cradled

Original size

39.5 × 126.7 cm (15 1/2 × 49 7/8 in.); Framed: 67.4 × 152.4 × 7.7 cm (26 1/2 × 60 × 3 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Italian Renaissance

This mid-fifteenth century panel crackles with the energy of a city in crisis, its crowded figures enacting one of history's most dramatic turning points with the narrative urgency of a medieval chronicle and the visual confidence of early Renaissance Florence. Apollonio di Giovanni ran one of the most prolific workshops in quattrocento Florence, specialising in decorative panels for cassoni — the painted marriage chests that adorned wealthy Florentine homes. His workshop had a gift for translating classical subjects into vivid, densely populated scenes that blended Roman antiquity with contemporary Florentine costume and architecture, making ancient history feel immediate and local to its first audience. The humanist poet Ugolino Verino praised Apollonio in verse, comparing him to Apelles, the legendary painter of ancient Greece — a remarkable tribute that speaks to the workshop's standing in Florentine cultural life. Now held in the Art Institute of Chicago, the original has passed through centuries of handling and transfer, its tempera surface carrying the warmth and particoloured storytelling that defined Florentine narrative painting of the period. The hand-painted oil reproduction draws from that same visual language, rendering the procession of mourners, the drama of the senate floor, and the jewel-like palette in oils that give the composition new depth and presence on the wall.