Engraving and etchingexpand_more
Gift of the Estate of Kemper Kirkpatrickexpand_more P.92.8.19
The "twelve Caesars" became a popular theme after Suetonius's biography of the emperors was published in 1470. Theodor de Bry put them on a set of dish designs, here showing Augustus, Vitellius, and Domitian. The profiles are based on portrait medals by Paduan Giovanni Cavino, whose renderings established the standard look of the twelve Caesars in art. In a humorous turnabout, de Bry's Caesars are surrounded not by scenes of conquest but by grotesques and capering jesters.
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