En torno al "Último día de Sagunto" de Francisco Domingo Marqués y el "Mosaico de Alejandro"

Abstract

In this paper we put forward the hypothesis that the general layout and composition of the painting by F. Domingo Marqués titled 'The last day of Saguntum' (1869) was taken from the then already well-known Alexander's Mosaic from Pompeii, even if other, more recent influences in the use of colour cannot be discarded. We will also show how this canvas, even if taking into account the nineteenth century historical painters' passion for realism, reflects the rather poor knowledge by contemporary archaeologists and historians of the material culture of the ancient Celtiberians. Last, we argue that this painting shows the contradiction between love for the Classical past understood as that of Greece and Rome in their prime and the reality of the comparative poverty of the material culture of the ancient inhabitants of Iberia.