Famous Men of Antiquity (2)
by PERUGINO, Pietro, Fresco, 291 x 400 cm
Each of the two compartments (lunettes) on the left wall presents a row of six figures standing in front of a low landscape horizon. Above these, personifications of the four cardinal virtues sit enthroned on clouds, two in each lunette. Beside each of the Virtues is an ornamental inscription tablet flanked by putti and containing a Latin distich identifying her and celebrating the exemplars below. Each trio of figures is made up of two Romans and one Greek; their names appear on the ground beneath their feet.
The represented famous men in the second compartment are Lucius Sicinius, Leonidas, Horatius Cocles, Publius Scipio, Pericles, and Quintus Cincinnatus. Above them the Cardinal Virtues Fortitudo and Temperantia are depicted. Perugino’s self-portrait is on the left.