The Triumph of Julius Caesar c. 1498

Andrea Mantegna created this engraving, "The Triumph of Julius Caesar," sometime in the late 15th century, during the Italian Renaissance, a time of renewed interest in classical antiquity. The print depicts a triumphant procession, likely inspired by ancient Roman victory parades, but it also reflects the social hierarchies of Renaissance Italy. Note how Mantegna appropriates imagery of Roman power. The elephants, the spoils of war, and the idealized male figures all glorify military conquest and the subjugation of other peoples. What we see represented in the procession does not include the voices of those who were conquered, and enslaved. Mantegna's work embodies the era's fascination with power and the construction of masculine identity through military prowess, inviting us to consider the human cost of such "triumphs," and to ask whose stories are amplified and whose are silenced in the grand narratives of history.