The story is one of the legends relating to the history of ancient Rome. In this drawing, Horatius Cocles can be seen defending the bridge over the Tiber against the Etruscan attackers. Legend has it that everyone had fled and that Horatius Cocles was now left to defend Rome on his own. According to that legend, he managed to defend the bridge until the Romans succeeded in demolishing it, after which the hero had to swim to the bank. Polidoro da Caravaggio was a pupil of Raphael and is best known as a painter skilled in decorating facades. Relatively few of his works are known today, as frescoes painted directly on to the façades of Roman houses have long since perished. So the drawing in Thorvaldsen’s collection, presumably a contemporary copy of one of Polidoro’s fresco façades, is of almost unique significance.
