Mantuan School, 16th century

A series, now lost, of twelve portraits of Roman emperors was commissioned from Titian by Federico Gonzaga for the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua (only eleven were completed). Now known through a series of engravings by Aegidius Sadeler and numerous copies, including those by Bernardino Campi (1522–1591) at the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte in Naples, the paintings were sent to England, along with the rest of the Gonzaga collection and entered the collection of Charles I. After the Commonwealth Sale, the series was acquired by the Spanish Crown but subsequently perished by fire in Madrid in 1734. 

As well as the series now in Naples painted by Campi for Francesco Ferdinando d'Avalos in 1561,¹ the artist is recorded as having painted numerous other sets, including one executed in about 1585 for Vespasiano Gonzaga's 'Sala degli Imperatori' at the Palazzo Ducale in Sabbioneta. The theme enjoyed great popularity and is known to have been frequently copied, also by others.² The present example, which replicates the portrait of Caligula, is of high quality. We are grateful to Marco Tanzi for suggesting it is the work of a painter in Mantua, as yet to be identified.

The Roman emperor Gaius, more commonly known as Caligula, (reg. AD 37–41), ranks among history’s most notorious characters. His tyrannical rule came to an end with his assassination. In this portrait his youth and determination are powerfully conveyed.

¹ To Titian's eleven Emperors Campi added a twelfth of his own invention, a portrait of Diocletian. His twelve canvases each measure approximately 138 x 110 cm.

² Ippolito Andreasi (1548–1608), for example, copied Titian's Emperors for the celebrated antiquarian Jacopo Strada in a set of drawings now preserved in the Graphische Sammlung at the Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf.