From the bestselling author of SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome, the
fascinating story of how images of Roman autocrats have influenced art,
culture, and the representation of power for more than 2,000 years
What does the face of power look like? Who gets commemorated in art
and why? And how do we react to statues of politicians we deplore? In
this book--against a background of today's "sculpture wars"--Mary Beard
tells the story of how for more than two millennia portraits of the
rich, powerful, and famous in the western world have been shaped by the
image of Roman emperors, especially the "Twelve Caesars," from the
ruthless Julius Caesar to the fly-torturing Domitian. Twelve Caesars
asks why these murderous autocrats have loomed so large in art from
antiquity and the Renaissance to today, when hapless leaders are still
caricatured as Neros fiddling while Rome burns.
Beginning with the importance of imperial portraits in Roman politics,
this richly illustrated book offers a tour through 2,000 years of art
and cultural history, presenting a fresh look at works by artists from
Memling and Mantegna to the nineteenth-century American sculptor Edmonia
Lewis, as well as by generations of weavers, cabinetmakers,
silversmiths, printers, and ceramicists. Rather than a story of a simple
repetition of stable, blandly conservative images of imperial men and
women, Twelve Caesars is an unexpected tale of changing identities,
clueless or deliberate misidentifications, fakes, and often ambivalent
representations of authority.
From Beard's reconstruction of Titian's extraordinary lost Room of the
Emperors to her reinterpretation of Henry VIII's famous Caesarian
tapestries, Twelve Caesars includes fascinating detective work and
offers a gripping story of some of the most challenging and disturbing
portraits of power ever created.
Published in association with the Center for Advanced Study in the
Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
