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
