Cincinnatus called up from the Field

Cincinnatus Called Up from the Field, dated 1707 and at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Strasbourg, depicts the legendary Roman dictator Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, who was reportedly plowing his farm when ambassadors arrived to inform him he had been appointed dictator to save Rome from a barbarian threat. The subject encapsulated Roman virtues of civic duty, agricultural simplicity, and disinterested patriotism — values the eighteenth century explicitly contrasted with the perceived corruption of contemporary politics. Ricci's canvas brings to this Republican moral subject the visual richness of his Venetian training, creating a dynamic of simple virtue encountering grand official ceremony. The Strasbourg museum holds this work as part of its significant collection of Venetian Baroque and Rococo painting, reflecting the sustained French interest in Italian painters who combined classical themes with pictorial elegance.

The contrast between Cincinnatus's rustic farm setting and the official Roman ambassadors in elaborate dress provides Ricci with compositional material across both figure and costume register. The field setting allows for a landscape background establishing context, while the principal figures engage in the gesture-driven exchange that carries the narrative. The 1707 date places this in Ricci's early mature phase.