Caligula Crossing the Bay of Baiae (SIGNED) (Original)

Artist: Roger Payne
Medium: Pen & Ink Wash on Board
Size: 11" x 7" (290mm x 190mm)
Date: 1977
Signature: Signed by artist bottom left
Code: PayneTriumphLL

This is the Signed unique original Pen & Ink Wash by Roger Payne.

The Madness of Rome: Gaius Caesar, known to posterity as Caligula (reigned 37-41AD), is depicted riding his horse Incitatus across a 2 mile long pontoon bridge he ordered constructed across the Bay of Baiae, whilst wearing the breastplate of Alexander the Great.

Caligula did this in response to the prediction of a soothsayer named Thrasyllus of Mendes that he "had no more chance of becoming emperor than of riding a horse across the Bay of Baiae".

Wonderful, signed, original illustration from Look and Learn, issue number 796, 16th April 1977.