Bellona with Romulus and Remus

Bellona with Romulus and Remus depicts the goddess of war alongside the legendary founders of Rome — the twins nursed by the she-wolf according to the founding myth. Alessandro Turchi, working in Rome, had particular reason to engage with subjects from Roman legendary history, and Bellona's patronage of war made her a fitting companion for the martial foundation narrative. The subject is unusual — it appears to be Turchi's own conflation of mythological and legendary Roman material — and may reflect a specific commission for a patron with interests in Roman antiquity or republican virtue. Turchi's mythological paintings in Rome drew on the same elegant figural language he brought to devotional subjects, and works of this type were produced for a cultivated audience that valued both iconographic erudition and painterly refinement. The absence of a collection record suggests the work may be in private hands or its location uncertain.

Oil on canvas with figures drawn from both mythology (Bellona) and Roman legend (the infant twins). Turchi's compositional strategy would group these distinct iconographic elements into a unified narrative or allegorical statement. The smooth flesh modeling characteristic of his technique handles both the goddess and the infants, with attributes — weapons for Bellona, the she-wolf if depicted — organizing the iconographic reading.