Page:Hutton, William Holden - Hampton Court (1897).djvu/271

Rh Gonzaga, in the hands of whose descendants they remained till war and wrack and the coming end of the dynasty induced the sale to Charles I. Thus they have been practically in the hands only of two States from the day they were painted until now; and but for William III. and Laguerre they might have been worthy of so clear a descent.

They are worthy still of a detailed explanation, from the proud trumpeters who lead the procession to the pale Cæsar in his car, with palm branch and sceptre, and crowned by Victory with a laurel wreath. But only a brief word must be said here. The first picture contains the heralds, trumpeters with "tables" hanging from their trumpets, soldiers bearing S.P.Q.R., leaders of the triumph, with censers aflame, and a bust of Roma Victrix held high above their heads. In the second are the spoils of temples, antiquities such as Mantegna loved to paint, statues, busts, drawn on cars or carried in the arms of the crowd. The splendid triumphal car has not been repainted. One tablet is inscribed ''Imp. Julio Cæsari ob Galliam devict. militari potentia triumphus decrectus invidia spreta superata''. Next come soldiers and youths turning to each other as they walk, with trophies, urns, and vases. Among those in this third picture a strong young man, with breastplate and short white breeches, rosy-faced (but with the colour of La Guerre), and confident, arrests attention. Behind come the oxen decked for the sacrifice, a flaxen-haired lad leading with his right hand on one of the oxen, whose unhappy simper reveals