# Agrippina Landing at Brundisium with the Ashes of Germanicus [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [WEST, Benjamin]() - Date: 1751-1800 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 164 x 240 cm ## Commentary The subject of this painting was taken from Roman history. Agrippina the Elder was a distinguished and prominent Roman woman of the first century AD. She was the wife of the general and statesman Germanicus and was granddaughter of Augustus, Rome's first emperor,. The scene shows the widowed Agrippina returning to Rome carrying the ashes of her assassinated husband, Germanicus. She is accompanied by her two young children, Caligula, the future emperor, and Agrippina the Younger, who was to be the mother of the Emperor Nero. Agrippina has placed herself and her children in certain danger by returning to confront the Emperor Tiberius, who was widely believed to have instigated Germanicus's murder. Germanicus's popularity as a general, as well as his wife's legendary virtue, draws large crowds of sympathizers to greet her when she disembarks at Brundisium. Painted for the Archbishop of York, this canvas led to King George III's lifelong patronage of West, despite the Pennsylvania-born artist's frank American patriotism. ## Related artworks - [Cupid Releasing Two Doves]() - [Edward III Crossing the Somme]() - [Joseph Banks]() - [Musidora and her Two Companions]() - [Omnia Vincit Amor or The Power of Love in the Three Elements \(detail\)]() - [Omnia Vincit Amor or The Power of Love in the Three Elements]() - [Portrait of Colonel Guy Johnson]() - [Portrait of George, Prince of Wales, and Prince Frederick, later Duke of York]() - [Portrait of Prince William and His Elder Sister, Princess Sophia]() - [Self-Portrait]() - [The Battle of La Hogue]() - [The Burghers of Calais]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()