Lot Essay
A related set of profile medallions of Roman Emperors of the Julian family features on a pair of Limoges enamel candlesticks by Jacques I Laudin, who flourished between 1627-95 (illustrated in P. Verdier, Catalogue of the Painted Enamels of the Renaissance, Baltimore, 1967, pp.389-391). Similarly displayed with the odd-numbered profiles looking to sinister and the even-numbered looking to dexter, the concept of grouping the Caesars harks back to Suetonius' De Vita Caesarum.
The source of the Imperial profiles may well be found in the engravings of the Twelve Caesars by Marcantonio Raimondi or those of Hubert Goltz (Goltzius) in his Imperatorum Imagines. A related series of bronze profile medallions in the Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, was exhibited in 'Natur und Antike in der Renaissance'. Exhibition Catalogue, Frankfurt am Main, 1986, nos. 36-46.
The source of the Imperial profiles may well be found in the engravings of the Twelve Caesars by Marcantonio Raimondi or those of Hubert Goltz (Goltzius) in his Imperatorum Imagines. A related series of bronze profile medallions in the Kunsthistoriches Museum, Vienna, was exhibited in 'Natur und Antike in der Renaissance'. Exhibition Catalogue, Frankfurt am Main, 1986, nos. 36-46.