Death of Atilius Regulus

Salvator Rosa paired this large-scale etching with a similarly oversize print of the crucifixion of Polycrates (the painting is also in the Art Institute collection, 1942.292). He dedicated this etching—depicting the gruesome end of the stalwart Roman consul Atilius Regulus at the hands of the Carthaginians—to his best friend, Giovanni Battista Riccardi, urging him to stay strong in the face of adverse fortune, just as Atilius Regulus “remains a firm center in the midst of so many nails.”