Augustus, emperor of Rome. Line engraving by A. Sadeler

Octavian Augustus is one of the Eleven Caesars was a series of eleven painted half-length portraits of Roman emperors created by Titian in 1536-40 for Frederick II, Duke of Mantua. They were among his best-known works, inspired by Suetonius' Lives of the Caesars. Titian's paintings were originally housed in a new room within the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua. Bernardino Campi added a twelfth portrait in 1562. The portraits were copied by Flemish engravers in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, who added engravings of twelve Roman empresses. Between 1627 and 1628 the paintings were sold to Charles I of England by Vincenzo II Gonzaga, and when the Royal Collection of Charles I was dismembered and sold after his execution by the English Commonwealth, the Eleven Caesars passed in 1651 into collection of Philip IV of Spain. They were all destroyed in a catastrophic fire at the Royal Alcazar in Madrid in 1734 and are now known only from copies and engravings. This is by Aegidius Sadeler.

CHARACTERISTICS

Print on handmade Amalfi paper with frame
Sheet size: 30 x 42 cm
With frame: 32 x 44 cm
Material: work printed on very fine handmade Amalfi paper with fringed edges, handmade beech wood frame