[The Assassination of Julius Caesar] · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: [The Assassination of Julius Caesar]
Period: 1550-1600;
Geographic: Italy; Ancient Rome
Description: The top right corner of the engraving illustrates many gods sitting on a cloud looking at Jupiter who is wearing a crown and holding thunder bolts. Venus begs Jupiter to stop the assassination of Julius Caesar before it happens. Jupiter, however, explains that there is nothing Venus can do to stop the fates from ending Caesar’s life. The left side of the engraving depicts the assassination of Julius Caesar. Venus is illustrated in a cloud above Caesar with her hands reaching towards him as she transforms him into a star and deifies him once he is dead. Cupid, Venus’ winged son, is depicted directly behind her on the cloud.
Image Creator: Virgil Solis (Engraver)
Type: Text; Woodcut Engraving
Identifier: mta:11901
Language: spa
Source Name: Las Transformaciones de Ovidio en lengua Española, repartidas en quinze libros, con las Allegorias al fin dellos, y sus figuras, para prouecho de los Artifices [The Transformations of Ovid in the Spanish language, distributed in fifteen books, with the allegories at the end of them and their figures, for the benefit of the creators]
Parent Collection: Las Transformaciones de Ovidio en lengua Española. Woodcut engravings by Virgil Solis (1595)
Image: mta_11901_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Ovid's Metamorphoses
Subject: Gods; Roman Mythology; Assassination; Julius Caesar; Venus