Curtius Leaping into the Gulf

Benjamin Haydon's Curtius Leaping into the Gulf of 1842 illustrates the Roman legend of Marcus Curtius, who rode his horse into a chasm that had opened in the Roman Forum — an act of self-sacrifice that legends said would close the gulf if Rome's greatest treasure was cast into it. Haydon chose the subject for its combination of heroic individual action and moral seriousness that aligned with his lifelong belief in history painting as a vehicle for civic virtue. By 1842 his career was in terminal decline: his exhibition of Aristides and Nero was a commercial disaster when exhibited alongside General Tom Thumb, and he took his own life in 1846. Curtius leaping to his death carried autobiographical resonance for a painter who felt he was sacrificing himself for an art his country refused to support. The Royal Albert Memorial Museum's picture is a document of his late artistic desperation.

Haydon paints the horse and rider with the dramatic energy appropriate to the subject, the figure silhouetted against a turbulent sky above the chasm. His handling of horses, always one of his strengths, is vigorous and anatomically confident. The composition is organized around the diagonal of the falling leap, creating a strong sense of irrevocable downward motion.