Skip to main content

Secondary sourcePainting

Etched Portrait of Julius Caesar

F. Perrier

An imagined 17th-century etching of Julius Caesar by printmaker F. Perrier, made long after his death.

An imagined later portrait of Caesar, showing how artists long after his death pictured him.

Ask Julius Caesar about this sourceView the original(opens in new tab)
Engraving of a standing male figure in Roman armor with a draped cloak over one shoulder, a pleated leather-style skirt with decorative lappets, and sandals, resting on a plinth. His right arm is extended outward, left hand holds a small object. The caption below reads Julius Cesar. Monochrome line hatching on a striped background.
F. Perrier, Julius Caesar, etching. Wellcome Collection, London.

About this source

What it is

This etching, made by F. Perrier, shows an imagined portrait of Julius Caesar as a standing Roman soldier in armor and a draped cloak. It was created many centuries after Caesar's lifetime and is held today by the Wellcome Collection in London.

Why it matters

Because no portrait of Caesar from his own lifetime survives in this collection, images like this one show how later artists imagined him rather than how he actually looked. It reveals how people of the 1600s pictured ancient Roman leaders using the armor and poses familiar from their own time.

Look closer

  • What details suggest this is an imagined, not a real, likeness?
  • Why might artists centuries later want to create portraits of Caesar?
  • What does the pose and costume tell you about how later Europeans viewed Roman leaders?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Julius Caesar on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

More Julius Caesar sources

Meet the AI Julius Caesar →
Manuscript page of Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, with a red-ink title line, a large illuminated initial C with gold and blue decoration, black Latin text in columns, a floral border with blue and red flourishes, a library stamp, and a coat of arms at lower right.Book

Primary source

Commentarii de Bello Gallico

Julius Caesar · c. 58-50 BCE (this copy 1469)

Engraved print of the murder of Julius Caesar. On the left, a bearded man with a crown and laurel-like headpiece is stabbed by a man lunging with a dagger; another figure raises a weapon behind. A radiant light and smoke rise above. On the right, an ornate colonnaded interior with a niche holding a statue and an arched doorway. Caption below reads 'Iulius Caesar in stellam' and page number 150.Painting

Secondary source

Murder of Julius Caesar in the Senate

Open book showing a title page on the right: 'C. Julii Caesaris Commentarii de Bello Gallico et Civili, Tomus I, Venetiis 1783', framed by ornate borders with a trophy of arms. On the left, an engraved frontispiece shows a seated Roman figure holding a tablet, with a standard and a city in the background.Book

Primary source

Commentarii de Bello Civili

Julius Caesar · 49-48 BCE

Engraving with a Latin caption reading 'Iulius Caesar Veneris beneficio in Cometam mutatur' (plate 150). A man in a laurel wreath, bare-chested and draped, is embraced by a standing figure and a woman with a star-shaped comet. A winged cupid flies at upper right, and a large cloud fills the background.Painting

Secondary source

The Murder of Julius Caesar

1606

Black and white engraving of a Roman senate chamber with tall columns and rows of benches. Togaed men with raised daggers surround a figure lying on the floor at lower left. Statues stand at left, and a seated figure sits at right. Title below reads The Death of Caesar.Painting

Secondary source

The Death of Julius Caesar

J.C. Armytage after Jean-Léon Gérôme · 1800-1899

Ready when you are

Start chatting with Julius Caesar now.

20 messages free · No credit card · Available in 50+ languages.

Trial Humy for freeGet a quote for institutions