[Portia the Daughter of Marcus Cato] · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: [Portia the Daughter of Marcus Cato]
Subject: Portia; Porcia; Decius Brutus; Julius Caesar; Important Women; Famous Women
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: Ancient Rome; Italy
Description: This image depicts the Roman woman Portia (also commonly spelled as Porcia) filing the toenails of the man sitting on the stool in front of her. This man is most likely her husband, Decius Brutus, a conspirator of the assassination of Julius Caesar. Brutus had told Portia that the Senate was going to assassinate Caesar, and after hearing the conspiracy plans, Portia took a barber’s razor and cut herself with it. She does this to prepare herself in case she has to kill herself should the conspiracy not work out in Brutus’ favour. The tool in her hand in the image is representative of the barber’s razor that she uses in the story. After her husband dies, she eats burning coal to kill herself.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:25515
Language: frm
Source Name: De la louenge et vertu des nobles et cleres dames [Of praise and virtue of the noble and clergy women]
Parent Collection: 1493 Paris; 1493 Paris
Image: mta_25515_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Portia; Porcia; Decius Brutus; Julius Caesar; Important Women; Famous Women