Thread by @GettyMuseum

.@wmarybeard speaks tonight at the Getty Center on Roman emperors in art since the Renaissance—join along as we live tweet.

Beard begins with her favorite painting in the Getty collection—“The Age of Augustus, the Birth of Christ” by Jean-Léon Gérôme gty.art/2kRt5SF

@wmarybeard The painting contrasts Roman imperial pomp and power in the background with a nativity scene (described as "gothic" by some critics) in the foreground, says #MaryBeard.

The emperor here? Augustus, leader of Rome at the time of Jesus's birth.

@wmarybeard Upon Jesus’s birth, Augustus consulted a pagan prophetess, the Sibyl, on whether anyone would be born more powerful than the emperor himself—and whether he should allow himself to be worshipped as a god.

(From @LACMA: gty.art/2m1hJvx
gty.art/2lVJ0Q6)

@wmarybeard @LACMA The lesson? "We should always, when we spot a Roman emperor in a work of modern art, say: 'What the hell’s *he* doing there?', says @wmarybeard.

Roman emperors do indeed appear as (and on!) wallpaper, but they also appear in art for a reason.

@wmarybeard @LACMA "The range of Roman emperors [in art] is more meaningful than just background wallpaper for the posh. In fact, emperors come in staggering varieties," says @wmarybeard, getting a laugh as she shows the emperor Augustus sculpted in chocolate. (Decaying chocolate.)

@wmarybeard @LACMA "Roman emperors have gone down in history as a pretty villainous crew," says #MaryBeard, so shouldn’t we be surprised by how prominent they’ve become in art?

Looking critically at how emperors are depicted enriches our understanding of the art in which they appear, she says.

@wmarybeard @LACMA Let's look at the depraved and gluttonous emperor Vitellius—no longer a household name, but once positively ubiquitous in art.

@wmarybeard has even found a Vitellius in an antique shop; the clerk claimed it once belonged to Andy Warhol. (It was out of her price range, alas.)

@wmarybeard @LACMA Vitellius, a particularly decadent emperor, illuminates how ancient rulers have been represented in art as both critique and support of the modern ruler, says @wmarybeard.

@wmarybeard @LACMA @V_and_A Vitellius's inclusion in a painting was a clue to the viewer that, just as he met a bleak end, so, too, might the decadent figures around him, notes Beard.

Case in point: “Romans of the Decadence” in @MuseeOrsay, gty.art/32NrOfR (find Vitellius lolling at front left).

@wmarybeard @LACMA @V_and_A @MuseeOrsay "Not all depictions of ancient Roman emperors in modern art were subversive"—far from it, says @wmarybeard. Modern rulers liked to trace their ancestry back to ancient Rome, often spuriously.

See Titian's (now-lost) paintings of emperors, which present them in a glorious light.

@wmarybeard @LACMA @V_and_A @MuseeOrsay But the plot thickens! “This is where we have to remember our Latin,” exhorts #MaryBeard.

The *captions* on prints of these glorious Titians caution us about "the terrible ills of sad power...factional fear of discord and civil plotting..."

@wmarybeard @LACMA @V_and_A @MuseeOrsay Bonus life lesson from @wmarybeard: "Ladies and gentlemen, it is always worth reading the Latin if it’s there."

@wmarybeard @LACMA @V_and_A @MuseeOrsay And what did the rulers of the Renaissance and beyond think of these works (such as "The Triumphs of Caesar" by Andrea Mantegna, gty.art/32KFEj0) that caution against the overreaches of autocracy?

@wmarybeard has an idea.

@wmarybeard @LACMA @V_and_A @MuseeOrsay @HRP_palaces "We underestimate courtly cultures' capacity for anxiety and self-reflection," says #MaryBeard. "These images point us to a monarchical culture much more engaged with problematizing the idea of monarchy than we like to think. They are part of a complicated debate about it."

@wmarybeard @LACMA @V_and_A @MuseeOrsay @HRP_palaces Concluding with another painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme (again with Vitellius), @wmarybeard explains that the artist "is using an emperor to ask us to think."

"And that, I suppose, is the point of this lecture: emperors are there in paintings to get us to think about them."