A leading figure in the troubled passing between the Roman Republic and the Empire, Julius Caesar (100 - 44 BC) was never to become its emperor, but he did lay the groundwork for its foundation. An exceptional character, a man of letters, historian, general and statesman of extraordinary far-sightedness, he started even during his lifetime, to create his own myth. In fact, he presented himself as a descendant of Venus, thus tying himself to the original myth of the city of Rome itself, dating back, according to ancient tradition, to Aeneas himself, son of Venus, who supposedly landed at the Tyrrhenian shores of Latium at the end of his long wanderings, being exiled from Troy, as marvellously narrated in the Virgilian Aeneid.
Curated by Giovanni Gentile, the exhibition unifies archeological documents on loan from major Italian and foreign museums, reconstructed plastic models representing Rome as Caesar must have lived it. Also on display are examples of figurative art to document the myth of Caesar, and Caesarism from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, and onwards to Neoclassicism and beyond, up to the very early decades of the 20th century, when motion pictures, scenery, costumes and later movie sets filmed at Rome's Cinecitta studios, illustrated the most recent of Ceasar’s myths.
Chiostro del Bramante Web Site
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