The Octavia is the only surviving historical drama from ancient Rome. With a plot rich in sex, dynastic intrigue, riots, and murder, the play's characters include the philosopher Seneca, the emperor Nero, the ghost of his murdered mother, his wife Octavia, and his mistress and empress-to-be Poppaea. For centuries dismissed as a feeble, rhetorically overblown closet-drama written without consideration for the demands of plot or stage, the Octavia's dynamic changes of time and setting, its startling interplay of the verbal and visual, and its integration of issues pervading the politics of the period in which it was written, reflect scenic conventions and a notion of the dramatic that radically transforms and expands our knowledge of ancient theatre and the Roman stage. Roman Historical Drama is the first comprehensive interpretation of ancient historical drama in relation to this exciting play, revealing how the Octavia mirrors the genre's traditions by mixing formats and stock characters from traditional tragedy with elements drawn from new developments of the Hellenistic and Roman stage. The volume explores the role and impact of historical (and political) drama in Rome, offering a pioneering reading of the Octavia in relation to ancient performance practice, as well as to the politics of those who in AD 68 brought down the tyrant Nero. In its final section, the volume provides a panoramic survey of the revival and reinvention of classical tragedy in the Renaissance period, tracing the impact of the Octavia from Italy through France to Elizabethan England.

This book is the first complete study of the painter Nicolai Abildgaard's oeuvre. Abildgaard (1743-1809) is the only Danish artist of the 18th century to obtain a position in the European art history of the period. His works range from the Pre-Romantic sublime to Enlightenment history painting, anonymous satire and Neo-Classical allegory. 1789 radicalised his views and estranged him from his royal patrons. The imagery of his final, isolated years playfully evokes an erotic Neo-Classical Arcadia. Among his friends were the Swedish sculptor Tobias Sergel and the German sculptor Gottfried Schadow; and among his pupils were Asmus Carstens, Caspar David Friedrich, Phillipp Otto Runge and Bertel Thorvaldsen.

Prophecy, Populism, Propaganda in the 'Octavia'

Along with Hamlets Kronborg at Elsinore, Frederiksborg is the most magnificent early seventeenth-century residence in Northern Europe, visited by thousands of people from all over the world each year. Its splendid setting on three interconnected islands and the richness of its sculptural decoration is unparalleled. However, much of the structure and interior was devastated in a fire in 1859 and the large-scale damages necessitated substantial reconstruction. While the reconstruction is reasonably faithful to the original architecture, it was exceedingly lax when it came to the more than sixty freestanding sculptures that originally adorned the castles courtyards, galleries, arches and facades. This volume recreates an idea of how Frederiksborg presented itself to its visitors in the days of Christian IV. The book further unravels the profound inspiration Christian IV drew from his sojourns to Berlin, Dresden and, especially, to England, where in the summer of 1606 he visited his brother-in-law James I at Theobalds House. This visit provided inspiration that, even while construction of his residence in Denmark was in progress, would dramatically change the overall layout and facades of Frederiksborg, thereby turning the castle into the marvel that it remains to this day. In this pioneering study, featuring more than a hundred photos and illustrations, Patrick Kragelund etches out a new and important historical and architectural dimension to this magnificent monument.

A semiotic interpretation of the dreams of Aeneas and Turnus.