Editing Messalina (section)

===Later painting and sculpture===
One of the avenues to drawing a moral lesson from the story of Messalina in painting was to picture her violent end. An early example was [[Francesco Solimena]]'s ''The Death of Messalina'' (1708).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/627/|title=Death of Messalina (Getty Museum)|website=The J. Paul Getty in Los Angeles}}</ref> In this scene of vigorous action, a Roman soldier pulls back his arm to stab the Empress while fending off her mother. A witness in armour observes calmly from the shadows in the background. [[Georges Rochegrosse]]'s painting of 1916 is a reprise of the same scene.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.fineartlib.info/gallery/p17_sectionid/24/p17_imageid/1676|title=The Death of Messalina :: Georges Antoine Rochegrosse – Antique world scenes|website=fineartlib.info}}</ref> A mourning woman dressed in black leaves with her face covered as a soldier drags back Messalina's head, watched by a courtier with the order for execution in his hand. The Danish royal painter [[Nicolai Abildgaard]], however, preferred to feature "The Dying Messalina and her Mother" (1797) in a quieter setting. The mother weeps beside her daughter as she lies extended on the ground in a garden setting.<ref>[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nicolai_Abildgaard_-_The_Dying_Messalina_and_her_Mother_-_KMS3651_-_Statens_Museum_for_Kunst.jpg Wiki-Media]</ref>

In 1870 the French committee for the [[Prix de Rome]] set Messalina's death as the competition subject for that year. The winning entry by [[Fernand Lematte]], ''[[The Death of Messalina]]'', is based on the description of the occasion by [[Tacitus]]. Following the decision that she must die, "Evodus, one of the freedmen, was appointed to watch and complete the affair. Hurrying on before with all speed to the gardens, he found Messalina stretched upon the ground, while by her side sat Lepida, her mother, who, though estranged from her daughter in prosperity, was now melted to pity by her inevitable doom, and urged her not to wait for the executioner".<ref>[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0078%3Abook%3D11%3Achapter%3D37 ''Annales'' 11.37]</ref> In Messalina's hand is the thin dagger that she dare not use, while Evodus bends over her threateningly and Lepida tries to fend him off. In an earlier French treatment by {{ill|Victor Biennoury|fr| François Victor Eloi Biennourry}}, the lesson of poetic justice is made plainer by specifically identifying the scene of Messalina's death as the garden which she had obtained by having its former owner executed on a false charge. Now she crouches at the foot of a wall carved with the name of Lucullus and is condemned by the dark-clothed intermediary as a soldier advances on her drawing his sword.<ref>[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Death_Of_Valeria_Messalina_by_V.Biennoury.jpg Wiki-Commons]</ref>

Two Low Countries painters emphasised the behaviour of Messalina that led up to her end by picturing her wedding with Gaius Silius. The one by [[Nicolaus Knüpfer]], dated about 1650, is so like contemporary brothel scenes that its subject is ambiguous and has been disputed. A richly dressed drunkard lies back on a bed between two women while companions look anxiously out of the window and another struggles to draw his sword.<ref>[[:File:Nicolaus Kn%C3%BCpfer - Bordeelsc%C3%A8ne.jpg|Wiki-Commons]]</ref> The later "Landscape with Messalina's Wedding" by [[Victor Honoré Janssens]] pictures the seated empress being attired before the ceremony.<ref>[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Victor_Honor%C3%A9_Janssens_-_Landscape_with_Messalina%27s_Wedding_-_KMSst363_-_Statens_Museum_for_Kunst.jpg Wiki-Commons]</ref> Neither scene looks much like a wedding, but rather they indicate the age's sense of moral outrage at this travesty of marriage. That was further underlined by a contemporary [[Tarot]] card in which card 6, normally titled "[[The Lovers|The Lover(s)]]", has been retitled "Shameless" (''impudique'') and pictures Messalina leaning against a carved chest. Beneath is the explanation that "she reached such a point of insolence that, because of the stupidity of her husband, she dared to marry a young Roman publicly in the Emperor's absence".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.europeana.eu/portal/record/90402/RP_P_OB_34_861.html|title=Valeria Messalina; Messalline; Kaartspel met gerenommeerde heerseressen; Jeu des reynes renommées|website=Europeana Collections}}</ref>

The wild scenes following the wedding that took place in Rome are dramatised by Tacitus. "Messalina meanwhile, more wildly profligate than ever, was celebrating in mid-autumn a [[Bacchanalia|representation of the vintage]] in her new home. The presses were being trodden; the vats were overflowing; women girt with skins were dancing, as [[Maenad|Bacchanals]] dance in their worship or their frenzy. Messalina with flowing hair shook the [[thyrsus]], and Silius at her side, crowned with ivy and wearing the [[buskin]], moved his head to some lascivious chorus".<ref>[http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0078%3Abook%3D11%3Achapter%3D31 ''Annales'' 11.31]</ref> Such was the scene of drunken nudity painted by [[:fr:Gustave Surand]] in 1905.<ref>[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harvest-feast-given-by-messalina_by_G.Surand.jpg Wikimedia]</ref>

[[File:Messalina by Eugène Cyrille Brunet.JPG|thumb|upright=1.1|Messalina, [[Eugène Cyrille Brunet]] (1884), [[Museum of Fine Arts of Rennes]]]]
Other artists show similar scenes of debauchery or, like the Italian A. Pigma in ''When Claudius is away, Messalina will play'' (1911),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-when-claudius-is-away-messalina-will-play-by-apigma-1911-140718748.html|title=Stock Photo – When Claudius Is Away, Messalina Will Play by A.Pigma (1911)|first=Alamy|last=Limited|website=Alamy}}</ref> hint that it will soon follow. What was to follow is depicted in [[Federico Faruffini]]'s ''The orgies of Messalina'' (1867–1868).<ref>[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Faruffini-Federico-Orge-di-Messalina.jpg Wiki-Commons]</ref> A more private liaison is treated in [[Joaquín Sorolla]]'s ''Messalina in the Arms of the Gladiator'' (1886).<ref>[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Messalina_in_the_Arms_of_the_Gladiator_by_J.Sorolla_(1886,_priv.coll).jpg Wiki-Media]</ref> This takes place in an interior, with the empress reclining bare breasted against the knees of a naked gladiator.

Juvenal's account of her nights spent in the brothel is commonly portrayed. [[Gustave Moreau]] painted her leading another man onto the bed while an exhausted prostitute sleeps in the background,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.museuma.com/gustave-moreau/messalina.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304035400/http://www.museuma.com/gustave-moreau/messalina.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 March 2016|title=Messalina : Gustave Moreau : Museum Art Images : Museuma|date=4 March 2016}}</ref> while in Paul Rouffio's painting of 1875 she reclines bare-breasted as a slave offers grapes.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.artvalue.com/auctionresult--rouffio-paul-1855-1911-france-messalina-1960467.htm|title=Art Value|access-date=14 June 2013|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304093359/http://www.artvalue.com/auctionresult--rouffio-paul-1855-1911-france-messalina-1960467.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Dane [[Peder Severin Krøyer]] depicted her standing, her full body apparent under the thin material of her dress. The ranks of her customers are just visible behind the curtain against which she stands (see above). Two drawings by [[Aubrey Beardsley]] were produced for a private printing of Juvenal's satires (1897). The one titled ''Messalina and her companion'' showed her on the way to the brothel,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/beardsley-messalina-and-her-companion-n04423|title='Messalina and her Companion', Aubrey Beardsley, 1895|website=Tate}}</ref> while a rejected drawing is usually titled ''Messalina returning from the bath''.<ref>[https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O132464/messalina-returning-from-the-bath-print-beardsley-aubrey-vincent Victoria & Albert Museum]</ref> About that period, too, Roman resident [[Pavel Svedomsky]] reimagined the historical scene. There the disguised seductress is at work in a light-suffused alley, enticing a passer-by into the brothel from which a maid looks out anxiously.<ref>''Messalina'' at [https://www.akg-images.co.uk/archive/Messalina-2UMDHUK8IHGX.html AKG Images]</ref>

Alternatively, artists drew on Pliny's account of her sex competition. The Brazilian Henrique Bernardelli (1857–1936) showed her lying across the bed at the moment of exhaustion afterwards.<ref>[[:File:Henrique Bernardelli - Messalina, 1878-1886.jpg|Wiki-Commons]]</ref> So also did [[Eugène Cyrille Brunet]]'s dramatic marble sculpture, dating from 1884 (see above), while in the Czech [[Jan Štursa]]'s standing statue of 1912 she is holding a last piece of clothing by her side at the outset.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jan_Stursa_-_Messaline.jpg|title=Français : Messaline|first=Jan|last=Štursa|via=Wikimedia Commons}}</ref>