The Gallic Women: Episode from the Roman Invasion
The Gallic Women: Episode from the Roman Invasion (French: Les Femmes Gauloises: épisode de l'invasion romaine) is a painting by Auguste-Barthélemy Glaize, from 1851. It is a very large oil on canvas work, with a height of 424cm and a width of 651cm. It was exhibited at the 1852 Salon and purchased by the French state in 1853. Description The painting illustrates the siege of Gergovie, at which Julius Caesar established Roman rule over Gaul. According to Caesar's own account, Gallic women harangued and insulted the Romans. In the foreground on the right, a Roman horseman attacked by dogs, strikes women who have fallen to the ground. Dead or wounded Gallic soldiers lie on the left, and a woman is suffocating her children. Behind her, a group of Gallic women on a chariot stands at the centre of the composition. An old mother hides her daughter in her arms; another shakes her golden sickle while shouting; a third, implacable in her anger and in her hatred, holds the child she has just slaughtered to save him from the victors. Behind them, women gesticulate on a cart drawn by an ox. On the right, the Romans continue their bloodthirsty and pitiless