A military convoy with vexillarii (standard-bearers) dressed in scaled breastplates, some carrying war trophies

The drawing is connected to the upper frieze on the far right of the west wall of the Sala degli Stucchi executed to Giulio Romano’s designs in the Palazzo Te in Mantua, circa 1530 (Fig.1; A. Belluzzi, ‘Camera degli Stucchi’, in Palazzo Te, Modena, 1998, no. 785, ill.). The decoration of this room is in stucco and the double frieze shows the Roman army marching out from the upper band of the north wall. Vasari attributed the friezes to Francesco Primaticcio and Giovanni Battista Scultori, but this is uncertain owing to a lack of evidence (for a discussion on the decoration see A. Belluzzi, op. cit., nos. 784-792).
Another drawing of the same subject is in the Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. 3553; L. Angelucci, R. Serra, Giulio Romano, exhib. cat., Musée du Louvre, Paris, 2013, no. 23, ill.), one of a group of drawings relating to the stucco friezes.


Fig. 1. Giulio Romano, Sala degli Stucchi, west wall, Palazzo Te, Mantua.