The Funeral Of Caesar

Here this scene, reconstructed on the basis of the classical sources by the Utrechtian artist Pol du Closeau, the Netherlands. More information at: http://www.carotta.de http://www.carotta.de/subseite/events/lhc_e.ht ml http://www.vanfrieslandfilm.nl Marcus Antonius wanted to show the people how Caesar’s murderers had mauled him, and so he had a wax figure of the dead made showing him as he had fallen under the daggers and as he had been seen from the roofs of the houses where the people had barricaded in fear when three servants carried him home in his sedan with outstretched arms hanging down laterally. However, because this wax figure, if lying on the rostra, could not have been seen, he affixed it on a tropaeum which he had erected at the head of the bier, where at first it was covered with the robe in which he had been murdered. At a certain point of his speech, when the herod read the Senate resolutions which had declared his person sacrosanct and by which the senators

commited themselves to personally serve as his body guard, Antonius let the blood-stained and rent toga flutter with a lance, and then uncovered Caesar’s body of wax in order to entirely show the dagger thrusts, especially the mortal one in the side and the blood.With the help of a mechanism he then let this macabre tropaeum revolve so that all would see it, while a mime wearing the mask of the deceased one as if from the hereafter and in disbelieving astonishment spoke: “Ah, did I save them that they might murder me?”—which the people like the choir in a tragedy repeated. It did not fail to have its effect. The people got enraged and chased the murderers. Even a friend of Caesar’s, who had the misfortune of bearing the same name as another who had sided with the murderers, was torn to pieces so that no part of the body could be found for the funeral. The bier in form of the Venus-Genetrix-temple, Caesar’s body lying inside; tropaeum with wax figure, which is just being uncovered by Antonius with the lance. Behind it on the right of the Saturnus temple the Capitol.By the way, let it be noted here that Capitol classically means “place of a skull” and thus the word Golgotha is a proper translation thereof.The wax figure is fastened with two nails through the hands, which is obvious since a wax figure had a wooden core which was coated with wax.

For that reason it cannot sag, which it also wasn’t supposed to, because it was supposed to depict a stabbed one lying on the floor and it was only erected so that all could see him as he had lain. And naturally for the same reason it did not need a suppedaneum, a footrest, either.