The Ides of March (1883)
by Edward John Poynter (1836-1919)
This dramatic painting depicts Caesar’s wife (in the right) imploring him not to go to the Senate, where she fears he will be murdered. She points upwards to a comet in the sky, telling her husband that it ‘s an ill omen. Caesar’s face is obscured, but a bust with fiery eyes appears to be looking his way.
The source material for this dramatic painting is Act II, Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s historical play “Julius Caesar.” You may have heard Caesar’s response to his wife as it is frequently quoted out of context. He says to her: “Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once.”
Caesar is confronted with two deaths: a real one and a symbolic one. If he chooses to stay at home out of fear for his enemies, he will have lost his symbolic authority. Whereas if he attends the ceremony, he may perish, but his legacy will live on. It’s a beautiful Shakespearean paradox: if the man Caesar lives, the idea Caesar dies. But if Caesar dies, the then idea of Caesar lives forever.
The German idealist philosopher Hegel made a similar argument, when he stated that the death of Caesar -which was intended to save the Republic- was in fact what sealed its fate. Without Caesar’s death no Augustinian rule. This irony is what Hegel called “the cunning of Reason”.
The painting also brings to mind what is arguably the most beautiful and tragic scene in Homer’s Illiad, (Book 6) when Hector’s wife Andromache begs him not to return to the front lines of the battle for Troy. He refuses her, admitting he cannot protect her, but that he must die with his men. (“But it is not the coming suffering of the Trojans that so much distresses me (…), nor of my many and brave brothers who will fall in dust at the hands of enemy men, (…) so much as distress for you.”)
Andromache and Hector, by Antonio Zucchi (1773)
In the painting above you can see some similarities to Poynter’s “Ides of March.” Andromache pleads with Hector, similar to how Calphurnia pleads with Caesar. These are paintings that depict a painful farewell.
Like Caesar, Hector will never return to his wife. Slain by Achilles, Hektor’s body is desecrated and dragged by a carriage around the city for all to see. To make matters worse, his infant child will be thrown from the city walls, and his wife will be sold into slavery. But the character of Hector, and his love for his family, lives on forever in our collective cultural history.
Whether it’s Caesar or Hektor, the theme of a doomed man saying goodbye to his beloved is a timeless artistic motive. And one that remains no less powerful than when it was painted more than a hundred years ago.
Julian
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