On display elsewhere
The work depicts Numa Pompilius, ‘the Ceremonious’ (715–676 or 672 BC). One of the seven kings of the monarchical period in Rome, successor to Romulus. He was considered a priest-king inspired by the Nymph Egeria. Nymph Egeria, ‘of the black poplar’, in Roman mythology was a nymph and goddess of fountains and childbirth. She married Numa Pompilius. When the king died, Egeria transformed him into a well.
It was the first commission of the artist as a pensioner in Rome (1884–1885).
