Twelve Caesars: Images of Power from the Ancient World to the Modern

Historian Mary Beard, author of the bestseller “SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome,” invites you this time into an engrossing exploration of how, over two thousand years, images of Roman emperors shaped European art—and sometimes even political rhetoric. Lavishly illustrated, the book becomes a journey through the history of European art from Antiquity to the present day. Beard breaks down how the visual “canon” of the Twelve Caesars emerged, and shows how it was repeatedly reshaped and adapted: details were changed, interpretations and meanings were reworked, and—consciously or by accident—mistakes were allowed, emperors were mixed up, along with their wives and mothers. Step by step, the author reveals the logic of her “detective” investigation, helping to untangle a whole chain of mysteries and errors in attribution. She reconstructs lost, celebrated cycles of paintings and tapestries, and restores the true “identity” to many works.

But the book’s key question is why—and for what purpose—artists and patrons returned to the Caesars when the Roman Empire had long since ceased to exist: out of collector’s passion? as a political statement? Instead of the familiar “grand” gallery of monarchs, Mary Beard offers a close reading of some of the most challenging portraits of power ever created by great artists—from Titian and Veronese, Mantegna and Memling… all the way to conceptual works of modern times. At the same time, she makes you see anew what seems simple and obvious—works crafted by generations of weavers, cabinetmakers, goldsmiths, and engravers.