Two Warriors on Horseback: Titus Manlius Torquatus and Marcus Curtius (after Hendrik Goltzius)

The left panel shows Titus Manlius Torquatus from behind on a muscular horse, wearing the golden chain or 'torque' he won from a Gaulish giant. The right panel depicts Marcus Curtius on a rearing horse, illustrating his legendary leap into a chasm to save the Roman Republic. The figures are characterized by the heavy musculature and dramatic, twisting poses typical of the late 16th-century Dutch style.

These figures were reclaimed by Renaissance humanists and Neo-Stoics as archetypes of 'Virtus' (civic virtue) and 'Constantia' (steadfastness). In the context of the Northern Renaissance, these Roman exemplars served as moral allegories for the triumph of the disciplined soul over adversity and the sacrifice of the individual for the collective good.