Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis. The Conspiracy of Claudius Civilis is an oil painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt, c. 1661-62, which was originally the largest he ever painted, at about five by five metres in the shape of a lunette.
The painting was commissioned by the Amsterdam city council for the Town Hall. After the work had been in place briefly, it was returned to Rembrandt, who may have never been paid.
Rembrandt drastically cut down the painting to a quarter of the original size to be sold. It is the last secular history painting he finished.
The painting is on exhibition at Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Sweden. The painting follows Tacitus's Histories in depicting an episode from the Batavian rebellion, led by the one-eyed chieftain Claudius Civilis, in which he collected at one of the sacred groves, ostensibly for a banquet, the chiefs of the nation and the boldest spirits of the lower class, convinced them to join his rebellion, and then bound the whole assembly with barbarous rites and strange forms of oath.
Civilis, Tacitus writes, was unusually intelligent for a native, and passed himself off as a second Sertorius or Hannibal, whose facial disfigurement he shared, that is to say, the loss of one eye. He feigned friendship with Emperor Vespasian in order to regain his freedom. When he returned to his tribal grounds in the marshes of the Betuwe, he organized the revolt he had long been planning.
The painting was commissioned by the Amsterdam city council for the Town Hall. After the work had been in place briefly, it was returned to Rembrandt, who may have never been paid.
Rembrandt drastically cut down the painting to a quarter of the original size to be sold. It is the last secular history painting he finished.
The painting is on exhibition at Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Sweden. The painting follows Tacitus's Histories in depicting an episode from the Batavian rebellion, led by the one-eyed chieftain Claudius Civilis, in which he collected at one of the sacred groves, ostensibly for a banquet, the chiefs of the nation and the boldest spirits of the lower class, convinced them to join his rebellion, and then bound the whole assembly with barbarous rites and strange forms of oath.
Civilis, Tacitus writes, was unusually intelligent for a native, and passed himself off as a second Sertorius or Hannibal, whose facial disfigurement he shared, that is to say, the loss of one eye. He feigned friendship with Emperor Vespasian in order to regain his freedom. When he returned to his tribal grounds in the marshes of the Betuwe, he organized the revolt he had long been planning.
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