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Lot Essay
Caligula and his uncle Claudius, the third and fourth Roman Emperors, reigning from AD 37-41 and 41-54, have contrasting reputations. Caligula is known as mad and bad, while Claudius's reign is remembered as more beneficent. The image of Caligula, as does most likely that of Claudius, derives from the painting which is part of a series of Roman Emperors at Stuttgart recently accepted as by Rubens and painted as a young man before he went to Italy; the Claudius panel is lost. The inscription on the present Caligula differs from the prototype, while that on the Claudius differs from those on other early copies and like that of its pendant is in yellow rather than the gold employed in the Stuttgart series. The present supports seem to be old and typical of those used in Antwerp in the 17th century (they have not been studied dendrochronologically), so they are likely to be part of an as yet unrecorded series of emperors inspired by Rubens. For a discussion of the Stuttgart series and its copies, see K. Jonckheere, Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, Part XIX, Portraits after existing Prototypes, 2016, pp. 84-104 nos. 21-38.