Wunderkammer

Between 1587 and 1589, the Flemish engraver Adrien Collaert was inspired by the ancient treatise "The Lives of the Twelve Caesars" by the historian Suetonius, which tells the stories of the first rulers of the Roman Empire: from the Julio-Claudian dynasty through the "Year of the Four Emperors" to the Flavian dynasty. Collaert created a gallery of equestrian portraits of Roman emperors, which you can admire in our Kunstkamera!

Lithography begins with a stone: the artist draws directly on smooth limestone, and thousands of prints are pulled from it. Honoré Daumier worked with such stones for thirty years, satirizing the July Monarchy. For "Gargantua," he was imprisoned in Sainte-Pélagie, and after "Rue Transnonain," the government bought up the prints and destroyed the stone itself. Ten of his sheets, from the pear-shaped Louis-Philippe to the Bonapartist scoundrel Ratapoil, demonstrate how a cheap newspaper image became both a weapon and an art form.

A series of exquisite etchings depicting Roman emperors from Julius Caesar to Domitian. Based on the biographies of Suetonius and inspired by the compositions of Antonio Tempesta, this work combines the precision of classical iconography with the expressive technique of early Baroque. Schiaminossi's engravings impress with their masterful use of chiaroscuro and attention to detail, conveying the grandeur, character, and symbolic power of the rulers of ancient Rome.