Twelve Caesars, page 36
65 The history of the palace: Brown and Elliott, Palace for a King (with discussion of the paintings commissioned for it, pp. 105–40); Barghahn, Philip IV and the ‘Golden House’, 151–401 (reconstructing in detail the hang of the paintings). Little of the Buen Retiro survives; some remaining rooms are part of the Prado museum complex.
66 The layout of the gallery: Bottineau, ‘L’Alcázar’, publishing the inventory of 1686 (esp. 150–51, for the ‘Titians’); Orso, Philip IV, 144–53; Vázquez-Manassero, ‘Twelve Caesars’ Representations’, esp. 656–58.
67 There is no complete or accurate list of copies, but there is a useful register of many, with essential documentation in Wethey, Paintings of Titian, 237–40; Zimmer, ‘Aus den Sammlungen’, 12–16; 26–27. For ‘faces’ literally, see the set of twelve late sixteenth-century copies of emperors from the collection of Schloss Ambras in Austria which cuts down Titian’s three-quarter figures to ‘face-only’: Haag (ed.), All’Antica, 214–17.
68 Lamo, Discorso, 77 (‘offerendo tutti i dodici ritratti al Marchese’—my italics), who also remarks on the style. The work of Campi and his extended family: I Campi.
69 Coulter, ‘Drawing Titian’s “Caesars”’ (having been seen a century and a half earlier, and partially published in Morbio, ‘Notizie’). They obviously relate in some way—though exactly how is unclear—to a very similar, but clearly ‘squared’ (for copying), set of six drawings of Titian’s Julius Caesar, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho and Vitellius; these remained unsold at auction at Gros & Delettrez, Paris, 18 May 2009, lots 29 A–C (attributed to the workshop of Giulio Romano).
70 Ferdinand and the Spanish collections: Lamo, Discorso, 78. The (lost) paintings for the junior branches of the Gonzaga family: Sartori, ‘La copia’. Some of the documentation is collected in Ronchini, ‘Bernardino Campi’, esp. 71–72—though it raises some of the usual problems (why, for example, did Ferrante II of Guastalla direct Campi to the Emperors at Sabbioneta as his model, if Campi had actually painted those, and had his own templates anyway?). The heads of a surviving series of emperors painted by Campi and his workshop in the Palazzo Giardino at Sabbioneta certainly reflect the facial features of members of Titian’s series, though on very different bodies and sometimes attaching the ‘wrong’ heads to the ‘wrong’ emperors (Sartori, ‘La copia’, 21–24).
71 The several copies in Mantua: Rebecchini, Private Collectors, publishing local inventories and wills in which paintings of ‘Twelve Caesars’ are listed, sometimes explicitly attributed to Titian (see App. 4, I, 139; 4, II, 34; 6, II; 6, III, 11; 6, V, 1; 6, V, 210; 6, VI, 1). The evidence for the set commissioned for Pérez by Duke Guglielmo: Luzio, Galleria dei Gonzaga, 89.
72 The set commissioned by Maximilian II: Zimmer, Aus den Sammlungen, 20, 43–47. The Farnese inventory, see Jestaz, L’Inventaire, vol. 3, 132. A possible sixteenth-century source of these paintings: Robertson, ‘Artistic Patronage’, 370.
73 This is attested in a letter from Daniel Nys on 2 October 1627 (published in Luzio, Galleria dei Gonzaga, 147), with Anderson, Flemish Merchant, 130–31. Nys reports that the duke ‘wants to send a painter to copy the paintings of the gallery’ (voel mandare un pittore a posta per copiare li quadri della galleria), but insists that there are good artists in Venice whom he can get to do the job.
74 The text of the letter: Voltelini, ‘Urkunden und Regesten’, no. 9433 (‘porque ya tiene otros duplicados, que le embiaron de Roma’). Further background on the collection: Delaforce, ‘Collection of Antonio Pérez’, esp. 752.
75 Those in the d’Avalos collection: I Campi, 160 and I tesori, 50–53. Those in the private collection have a documented history in Mantua, and have been in the UK since the late 1970s. The relationship between the set of copies by ‘il Padovanino’ recorded in a 1712 inventory of the Ducal Palace at Mantua and the copies made for the Gonzaga, while the paintings were awaiting shipment in Venice, is anyone’s guess: Eidelberg and Rowlands, ‘The Dispersal’, 214, 267 n. 53. The replicas that now stand in the place of the originals in the Camerino are quite separate, acquired in 1924 (see above, n. 11).
76 The history of the Munich set is predictably unfathomable. Strada is known to have had painted copies of the main elements of the Camerino made at Mantua (as well as Andreasi’s sketches); but he must have been aware that there was already a set of emperors in Munich, since out of the whole line-up of emperors he ordered only a Domitian (he presumably assumed that the Munich set was only Titian’s original Eleven—wrongly it seems, since Fickler’s Inventory (above, n. 24) registers two Domitians in the Munich collection). The documentation on this and the complex inferences involved: Verheyen, ‘Jacopo Strada’s Mantuan Drawings’, 64 (with n. 35 above); Diemer et al. (eds), Münchner Kunstkammer, vol. 2, nos 2682, 3212; Zimmer, ‘Aus den Sammlungen’, 12–14.
77 There are impossible conundra here too. As Zimmer, ‘Aus den Sammlungen’, 19–20 observes, the relevant letter (above, n. 74) makes it seem unlikely that Rudolf was seriously in the market for Pérez’s Caesars; but why were they even being considered if he had already inherited a set on the death of his father in 1576?
78 Sadeler’s career: Limouze, ‘Aegidius Sadeler, Imperial Printmaker’; Aegidius Sadeler (c. 1570–1629). These were by far the most popular printed versions of Titian’s emperors, but there were many others: for example, those of Balthasar Moncornet in the early–mid-seventeenth century; of Georg Augustus Wolfgang in the late seventeenth century; of Thomas Bakewell and Louis-Jacques Cathelin in the eighteenth. Some of these were copies of Sadeler, but some were taken independently from other painted copies of the Titians. Sadeler’s Domitian, for example, was not based on Campi’s (another clear indication that Rudolf II did not own a Campi set; see Fig. 5.10). Wolfgang does base one of his figures on Campi’s Domitian, but—in another case of mistaken identity—turns it into a Tiberius. (See British Museum, Inv. 1950,0211.189.)
79 Vertue, Vertue’s Note Book, 52.The fact that in England Titian’s series were housed separately makes the idea that they were copied as a set unlikely.
80 Worsley, ‘The “Artisan Mannerist” Style’, 91–92 sees a connection between these Caesars and the family’s interest in Italy; but, directly dependant on Sadeler, they imply no knowledge of the originals or Italy (Illustrations: https://www.artuk.org/visit/venues/english-heritage-bolsover-castle-3510).
81 Details of the book: https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2011/music-and-continental-books-manuscripts-l11402/lot.11.html. I am very grateful to Bill Zachs for sharing this with me and for his information that the binding was commissioned by Robert Thornton (1759–1826), and that it is similar in style to the work of Roger Payne or Henry Walther. The shields: Schatzkammer, 282.
82 Fontane, Effi Briest, 166.
83 Halsema-Kubes, ‘Bartholomeus Eggers’ keizers’. They were originally designed for another royal palace at Oranienburg, and the same models were used again for the four lead busts now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (Fig. 5.15); ‘imaginative fantasies’ (phastasievollen … Dekor): Fittschen, Bildnisgalerie, 54–55.
84 Daily Mail: above, Chap. 2, n. 44. The modern memorabilia are available from https://fineartamerica.com.
85 Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Titian, 424.
86 The quotation: Saavedro Fajardo, Idea de un príncipe, 14 (‘No a de aver … Estatua, ni Pintura, que no cie en el pecho del Principe gloriosa emulacion’), translated as The royal politician, 15–16. These theories, in relation to the images of ancient emperors among the Spanish monarchy: Vázquez-Manassero, ‘Twelve Caesars’ Representations’, 658.
87 Agustìn, Dialogos, 18–19 (particularly interested in the appearance of Nero, as the persecutor of Peter and Paul).
88 Koering, Le Prince, 155–60 (noting how one of Giulio Romano’s ‘stories’ in the Camerino, showing Julius Caesar being inspired by the statue of Alexander the Great, acts out the whole principle of ‘exemplarity’); Bodart, Tiziano 158; Maurer, Gender, Space and Experience, 93–97 (on the wider Mantuan, and gender, context). ‘Examples’ more generally: Lyons, Exemplum.
Chapter VI Satire, Subversion and Assassination
1 The nineteenth-century verdict, ‘florid’: Visitor’s Hand-Book, 46. Worse (‘gaudy colour, bad drawing and senseless composition’): Dutton Cook, Art in England, 22, quoting also the famous quip of Horace Walpole, that it looked as if the artist ‘had spoiled it out of principle’.
2 A sympathetic account of Verrio and his work: Brett, ‘Antonio Verrio (c. 1636–1707)’; Johns, ‘ “Those Wilder Sorts of Painting”’. His work at Hampton Court in particular: Dolman, ‘Antonio Verrio and the Royal Image’.
3 The breakthrough article: Wind, ‘Julian the Apostate’; with Dolman, ‘Antonio Verrio and the Royal Image’, 22–24. The emperor himself: Bowersock, Julian.
4 Bowersock, ‘Emperor Julian on his Predecessors’; Relihan, ‘Late Arrivals’, 114–16.
5 The identification: Wind, ‘Julian the Apostate’, 127–28.
6 A detailed religious/political interpretation: Wind, ‘Julian the Apostate’, 129–32. ‘Interactive essay’: Dolman, ‘Antonio Verrio and the Royal Image’, 24.
7 The punishment of Brutus and Cassius: Dante, Inferno 34, 55–67. McLaughlin, ‘Empire, Eloquence’ is a useful overview of Renaissance disagreements on Caesar. The debate between Poggio and Guarino, with the texts: Canfora (ed.), Controversia; an English translation of an extract of Poggio’s contribution, and the whole of Guarino, with further discussion, can be found in Mortimer, Medieval and Early Modern Portrayals, 318–75.
8 Wyke, Caesar, 155.
9 de Bellaigue, French Porcelain, no. 305. The other emperors depicted are Augustus, Trajan, Septimius Severus, Constantine (plus Republicans, Scipio and Pompey; Greeks, Themistocles, Miltiades, Pericles and Alexander; Roman enemies, Hannibal and Mithradates).
10 Ancient criticisms of Caesar: above, Chap. 2, n. 6. Deare’s sculpture: Macsotay, ‘Struggle’.
11 The painting has recently been discussed briefly by Mauer, Gender, Space and Experience, 113–15. The ancient anecdote is told by, for example, Pliny, Natural History 7, 94; Dio, Roman History 41, 63, 5; and for this general theme in ancient literature, see Howley, ‘Book-Burning’, 221–22.
12 Plutarch, Pompey 80 refers to Caesar’s horror at the head (though it is his signet ring that prompts tears); Lucan, Pharsalia 9, 1055–56 is more cynical. Caesar being shown Pompey’s head is represented (with different degrees of distaste) in paintings, prints and on maiolica, by, among others, Louis-Jean François Lagrenée, Antonio Pellegrini, Sebastiano Ricci and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.
13 Martindale, ‘Triumphs’ (still the standard work); Campbell, ‘Mantegna’s Triumph’ and Andrea Mantegna, 254–72 (sharing my own sense of the darker side of these paintings); Tosetti Grandi, Trionfi; Furlotti and Rebecchini, ‘ “Rare and Unique”’.
14 Martindale, ‘Triumphs’, 117–18.
15 The face of Caesar is heavily restored, but closely based on a copy in Vienna: Martindale, ‘Triumphs’, 157.
16 A cautious analysis of this tradition of the slave: Beard, Roman Triumph, 85–92.
17 The theme of invidia in the painter’s work: Campbell, ‘Mantegna’s Triumph’, 96 (also illustrating the design of Mantegna’s personal seal: a plausible head of Caesar). Vickers, ‘Intended Setting’ sees the point of the Latin phrase, but his conclusions are fanciful.
18 The key study of these tapestries: Campbell, ‘New Light’, with Karafel, ‘Story’. Discussion of both the Caesar and the Abraham sets: Campbell, Henry VIII, 277–97. The relevant inventory entries: Starkey (ed.), Inventory, no. 11967 (with full dimensions); Millar (ed.), Inventories and Valuations, 158.
19 The history, importance and changing fortunes of tapestry: Campbell (ed.), Tapestry in the Renaissance, 3–11; Belozerskaya, Luxury Arts, 89–133.
20 The history of sightings: Campbell, ‘New Light’, 2–3. ‘woven … to the very life’: Groos (ed.), Diary of Baron Waldstein, 149. The watercolour, by Charles Wild, is in the Royal Collection (RCIN 922151).
21 I say ‘Henry’s originals’ following the general assumption that he was the first commissioner; there is certainly no hint of any sets earlier than his.
22 Karafel in Cleland (ed.), Grand Design, nos 61 and 62 (though the precise subject of the scene is misidentified here; see below, pp. 209–10).
23 Caesar’s murder: Williams (ed.), Thomas Platter’s Travels, 202; Pompey’s: Groos (ed.), Diary of Baron Waldstein, 149.
24 Campbell, ‘New Light’, 37 (quoting the relevant documents, from the Archivio di Stato in Rome). Recent discussion of the image on this tapestry: Astington, Stage and Picture, 31–33.
25 Suetonius, Julius Caesar 81 (without the name); Plutarch, Julius Caesar 65 (adapted by Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 2, scene 3; Act 3, scene 1).
26 Campbell, ‘New Light’, 35 and Raes, De Brusselse Julius Caesar wandtapijtreeksen, 12, describe it as ‘moralising’. The full caption on the tapestry reads: ‘Datus libellus Cesari conjurationem continens / Quo non lecto venit in curia ibi in curuli sedentem / Senatus invasit tribusq et viginti vulneribus / Conodit sic ille qu terrarum orbem civili sanguine / Inpleverat tandem ipse saguine
27 The technical arguments underpinning the connection between the Vatican piece and Henry’s set: Campbell, ‘New Light’, 5–6, 10–12. There are two later pieces adapting the same design: one, location unknown, auctioned at Drouot, Paris, 2 December 1988, lot 158; the other now in the French Musée National de la Renaissance, inv D2014.1.1.
28 Plutarch, Julius Caesar 35; Lucan, Pharsalia 3, 154–56, 165–68.
29 My intentionally simplified account skates over some of the side-stories, complexities and further likely descendants. Christina took her tapestries (inherited from her great uncle, Erik XIV, who died in 1577) to Rome when she abdicated in 1654, and after her death they were acquired by Don Livio Odescalchi, who made the inventory (a copy of which I consulted in the Hertziana Library in Rome). The inventory of Alexander Farnese: Bertini, ‘La Collection Farnèse’, 134–35. For those who would like to track down other versions: a similar scene (with borders and caption removed and misidentified as a biblical story) was sold at Christie’s New York, 11 January 1994, lot 216); another is noted in Barbier de Montault, ‘Inventaire’, a list of tapestries in Rome (without further specification of place) compiled in the late nineteenth century, pp. 261–62—but this example (which has not come to light) has a shorter caption: ‘Aurum putat Caesar’ (Caesar thinks of the gold); see also Raes De Brusselse Julius Caesar wandtapijtreeksen, 86–87.
30 Forti Grazzini, ‘Catalogo’, 124–26; Karafel, ‘Story’, 256–58. The set owned by Margaret of Parma, Alexander’s mother: Bertini, ‘La Collection Farnèse’, 128.
31 Sotheby’s New York, 17 October 2000, lot 117.
32 The tapestry became part of a popular fake news story that it may have been one of Henry VIII’s original set (see, e.g., The Times 26 December 2016); there can be no doubt, partly on the basis of the design of the borders, that it is one of the later weavings.
33 Suetonius, Julius Caesar 81; Plutarch, Julius Caesar 63; Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 1, scene 2. The current location of the tapestry with the caption naming Spurinna is unknown; it is illustrated, from a sale catalogue, in Campbell, ‘New Light’, Fig. 18.
34 These technicalities of tapestry production: Campbell, ‘New Light’. The repertoire of documented scenes include: Caesar crossing the Rubicon; Caesar breaking into the treasury; Caesar marching to Brundisium; Caesar on horseback with prisoner; the sacrifice of a bull; Spurinna foretelling the future (but see below, pp. 207–8); the departure of Pompey’s wife at the start of the war (but see below, pp. 209–10); ‘Caesar fighting a giant’ (but see below, p. 208); the battle of Pharsalus; Pompey and his wife on board ship; the assassination of Pompey; the assassination of Caesar.
35 Helen Wyld, who studied, for the National Trust, the seventeenth-century descendants of this series at Powis Castle has come closest to realising that the standard identifications cannot be correct. http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1181080.1.
