Marcia

Domenico Beccafumi painted the panel around 1519 as part of a decorative series for a wealthy Sienese merchant's bedchamber. The figure depicts Marcia, wife of the Roman statesman Cato the Younger, renowned in classical literature for her marital fidelity and maternal virtue.

The panel belonged to a set celebrating themes of love, fertility, and wifely devotion, likely commissioned for Francesco di Camillo Petrucci's marriage to Caterina di Niccolò Mandoli Piccolomini in 1512. Six panels survive from the original decoration, now scattered across collections in London, Rome, Florence, and Birmingham. The three heroines, Marcia, Tanaquil, and Cornelia, probably adorned the back of a bench seat in the bedchamber.

The oil on wood measures 92.1 x 53.3 cm and now hangs at the National Gallery in London, acquired in 1965. Beccafumi was the leading painter of Sienese Mannerism, known for his unusual colors and elongated figures. A Latin couplet in gilt lettering appears on this and other panels from the series, adding a literary dimension to the visual decoration.