Tullia passing her chariot over her father's body

In 1765, Bardin won the Prix de Rome with what will be remembered as one of his finest paintings, which was deposited in 1803 in the Mainz Museum when the city was attached to France. After arriving in Paris in 1751, Bardin trained in the studio of Lagrenée l'Aîné, then in that of Jean-Baptiste-Marie Pierre, the very powerful director of the Académie Royale, from whom he derived his taste for shades of gray and pinkish-brown, as well as for clear, unemphasized compositions, as evidenced by this beautiful sketch marked by the return to Antiquity that permeated painting at the time. Although it shows a few variations from the final painting, it outlines the main features of the composition, the subject of which is taken from an episode in the history of the Roman Republic recounted by Ovid, Titus Livius and Valerius Maximus. The eldest daughter of Servius Tullius, sixth king of Rome (578-534 BC), Tullie first married the eldest son of Tarquin the Elder, before making him disappear and marrying his brother-in-law, Tarquin the Superb. Overambitious, she urged her husband to murder his father in order to seize the throne. As she left the Curia, where her husband had just been acclaimed, she ordered her coachman to drive his chariot over the bloodied body of her father, still dressed in the royal purple. The sketch emphasizes the tragic nature of the event and the determination of the heroine of this sad episode, as if to heighten the moralizing value of the action. Tullie, perched on a chariot, vehemently orders her coachman to direct his horses over the lying body of her father, as frightened and dismayed passers-by look on. The street in which this frightening spectacle took place was dubbed "Scélérate" by the locals.