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kennnedyexe's review
4.0
enjoyable! an often-witty and overall quite thoughtful deep dive into an art historical niche. an inspection of a particular motif (roman emperors) throughout art history. a caveat- it IS a niche. although beard does a wonderful job of attempting a clarifying "who's who" at the beginning of the book, and thoughtfully reiterates defining features to help the reader keep the caesars in line, a familiarity with classical history and/or renaissance art history (where a lot of the motifs pop up- rather unsurprisingly) does make the reading flow easier. nothing that a slow, deliberate reading process (as is often needed for these sorts of academic romps anyhow) isn't capable of ameliorating.
the reviews on this particular book are a wonderful reminder of why i put almost no weight to goodreads reviews of books lol, it seems a great many of the negative reviews accuse beard of "neglecting historical narrative" as if that was ever the intention of the book. she does have a quite lovely *classical history* book, however this one is quite explicitly stated to be a study of artistic motifs, quite literally derived from a fine arts lecture. it's not false advertising if you simply fail to bother to read the subtitle, much less the context of the book, which is quite clear as to its content and purpose.
it was fun! i love a good microscopic art historical gander. i love a good niche.
the reviews on this particular book are a wonderful reminder of why i put almost no weight to goodreads reviews of books lol, it seems a great many of the negative reviews accuse beard of "neglecting historical narrative" as if that was ever the intention of the book. she does have a quite lovely *classical history* book, however this one is quite explicitly stated to be a study of artistic motifs, quite literally derived from a fine arts lecture. it's not false advertising if you simply fail to bother to read the subtitle, much less the context of the book, which is quite clear as to its content and purpose.
it was fun! i love a good microscopic art historical gander. i love a good niche.
8797999's review
4.0
A very interesting book on how the Titular 12 Caesars have been portrayed over time in art from marble busts, silver tazze and countless portraits. A lot of information to digest and it was a different book to what I was expecting, in a good way.
Lots of images to Google and enjoy and places to visit and things to see. A book chocked full of characters both animate and inanimate.
Lots of images to Google and enjoy and places to visit and things to see. A book chocked full of characters both animate and inanimate.
zfeig's review
informative
slow-paced
1.0
This book is probably not what you think it is. It is not a history of the first 12 Caesars. Not even a little bit. It is the history of depictions of the 12 Caesars. It is soooo dense, incredibly boring and leaves you with zero understanding of Rome. Twelve thumbs down.