The paintings are theatrical depictions of events from the history of Ancient Rome, with a typically Venetian emphasis on drama and impact rather than historical accuracy.
While still a young man in his 20s, he was commissioned by Dionisio Dolfin [it], the Patriarch of Aquileia, to decorate the Cappella del Santissimo Sacramento in Udine Cathedral (completed 1726) and then to paint a two cycles of Old Testament paintings for the Patriarchal Palace [it] (or arcivescovado) in Udine (completed 1726–1728), including Rachel hiding Laban's idols [es; it] and Sarah and the archangels [es].
Still only in his early 30s, Tiepolo was then commissioned by Dionisio's brother Daniele to paint a series of ten painting depicting scenes from Ancient Rome for a large reception room on the piano nobile at the family's house in Venice, the Ca' Dolfin building, on the north side of the Rio di Ca' Foscari [fr] just off the Grand Canal.
Before Tiepolo began work, the room had already been partially decorated with trompe-l'œil wall paintings by Antonio Felice Ferrari c.1708 and ceiling frescos by Niccolò Bambini c.1714.
Two narrower canvases, each approximately 380 by 180 centimetres (150 in × 71 in), were placed to either side of the central window, depicting The Death of Lucius Junius Brutus and Arruns Tarquinius, and Hannibal Contemplating the Head of Hasdrubal (both at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna).
The paintings were quickly recognised as a masterpiece, praised by Vincenzo da Canal in 1732 as among Teipolo's best, and by Jean-Honoré Fragonard in 1761 as among his most beautiful works in Venice.
To pay a tax bill, a family descendant sold the paintings in 1872 via the art dealer Moses Michelangelo Guggenheim to the Austrian collector Baron Eugen Miller von Aichholz [de] for 50,000 livres.
After Castiglioni became bankrupt in 1924, two of the smaller paintings were sold to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna in 1930, and the three others were used as collateral for a loan from Dr Stefan Mendel, co-heir of the Austrian Ankerbrot [de] bakery business.
After a gallery at the Metropolitan Museum had been extended to creates a suitable space to hang them, and considerable restoration work, most of the paintings were reunited in New York for an exhibition in 1997.