This painting exemplifies a reawakened interest in the noble values of classical antiquity—stoicism, self-sacrifice, generosity, patriotism—that influenced artists and writers as well as politicians in the second half of the eighteenth century. It brought the Pennsylvania-born Benjamin West, who was working in London, immediate praise and the patronage of King George III. West here depicts a dramatic episode from Roman history. Agrippina, widow of the assassinated and much-admired general Germanicus, is seen arriving with the ashes of her slain husband. Crowds of mourning citizens greet her as she starts on her way to confront the Emperor Tiberius, widely believed to have arranged for Germanicus’s murder. To further his reference to antiquity, West modeled the central group on the Ara Pacis, the recently excavated Roman sacrificial altar, and painted the figures in cool whites, as if they too were carved in marble. Contemporary viewers would have recognized this classical allusion.
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