The Lictors Returning to Brutus the Bodies of his Sons. Study

Lucius Junius Brutus, one of the founders of the Roman Republic, sentenced his own sons to death for high treason, according to laws he had written himself. This oil sketch is a study for a larger painting that was completed in the year of the French revolution, 1789. The light falls on Brutus' wife and daughters, while he sits transfixed in the shade to the left. Art historians have discussed if …