Vespasian, Emperor of Rome. Line engraving by A. Sadeler, 16--, after Titian.

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

1 print : line engraving ; sheet 34.5 x 23.5 cm

D. Vespasianus Augustus. X. Effigiem iam cerne boni nunc principis: est quam Laetior obscuro sol ut ab imbre nitet. In medium tres, qui inter te, et venere Neronem, E medio miseris hi periere modis: Te fatum quoniam iam tunc poscebat, erasque Principis exemplum sancte future boni. Augebis laudes,augebis inique triumphos Ante voles o qui vertere cumque pium. Aegidius Sadeler S.C.M. sculp. Titianus inventor. Marcus Sadeler excudit. 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)

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

Wellcome Collection 730759i

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