Oil on canvas, 165cm by 221cm. In a carved and gilded frame.
This is recorded as having been painted for Jacopo Montinioni who died in Rome in 1687.
The painting was bought by John, 5th Earl of Exeter (1648-1700), probably in Rome in 1699 whilst on his final Grand Tour.
It was recorded, without attribution, in the 1738 Burghley Inventory: ‘in the North Dressing Room.’
Having been expelled from Rome, Coriolanus, a legendary Roman general, allied himself with the Volscians, a tribe hostile to Rome and laid siege to the city.
He was beseeched by his mother, Verturia, and his wife, Volumnia, not to attack the city in which they still lived and to which they remained loyal.
Chiari was a pupil, and one of the main assistants, of Carlo Maratta, (1625-1713), one of the 5th Earl’s favourite artists.
