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
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Review This Product
Fri, 12 Aug 2022 | Review
by: daniel1958
Mary Beard is an exceptional scholar and a very readable author...
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