Vitellius, 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 23.7 cm

Aullus Vitellius. IX. Si te tam miserum factura haec sarcina tandem, Aule, fuit regni; quid tibi pulsus Otho est. Mens hominum eventus, fortisque ignara latentis Exitiosa boni tincta colore petit. Quid tam suspecti hoc habuit tum culmen honoris? Quid non at potius turbinis, atque mali? Te carcer tulit infelix, laqueusque revinxit, Factus es cribrum, et carnificina miser. Aegidius Sadeler S.C.M. sculp. Titianus inventor. Marcus Sadeler excud. 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 730740i

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