"The story is told in Livy’s History of Rome: Horatius Cocles alone defends the Sublician bridge against the Etruscans while it is demolished behind him; above hovers an allegorical figure of Rome and in the foreground is a river god representing the Tiber.
This work was painted early during Le Brun’s stay in Rome, 1642-45, while he was under Poussin’s influence.
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