Domitian, Emperor of Rome. Line engraving by A. Sadeler, 16--, after B. Campi.

[Venice?] : Marcus Sadeler excud, [between 1600 and 1699?]

1 print : line engraving ; sheet 34 x 23.7 cm

Flavius Domitianus. XII. Debueras regimen non tu fecisse bienni O Fortuna Titi; ast esse perenne magis Flavius hunc si post facturus stemma pudendum Caesareum vitiis criminibusque fuit. Caesaris hic quantum nituit fraterque paterque Nomen inobscurat, commaculatque tholum. Admisit sors hoc, quod conspiratio mendum Insectans odiis firma abolere parat. Aegidius Sadeler S.C.M. sculp. Titianus inventor. Marcus Sadeler exc. Lettering in four elegiac couplets below the portrait

"Titian's series of portraits of the Caesars was painted for the Duke of Mantua, Federico II Gonzaga, between 1536 and 1540. Sold to Charles I of Great Britain in 1628, and acquired for Philip IV of Spain in 1651, they were lost in the fire at the Alcazar, Madrid, in 1734. Their immense popularity spawned many painted, drawn and engraved copies throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. … Engravings made around 1620 by Aegidius Sadeler (c. 1570-1629) also helped to popularise the Caesars across Europe , but it is possible that they were taken not from Titian's originals but from a further set of copies" (Coulter, op. cit., p. 563). The series painted by Titian omitted a portrait of Domitian, a gap which was filled by Bernardino Campi with a painting in the style of Titian (Coulter, op. cit., pp. 570-571)

Frances Coulter, 'Drawing Titian's "Caesars": a rediscovered album by Bernardino Campi', The Burlington magazine, July 2019, 161: 562-571

Wellcome Collection 730761i

One print in a set of twelve pairs of prints of Roman emperors and empresses