Narrative Set: The Histories

Title: Res Gestae

Media: Canvas, Acrylic, Wax Crayons, Pencils, Water. 

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Narrative: This piece was inspired by the Res Gestae Divi Augusti (translation: The Deeds of the Divine Augustus) which is the funerary inscription of the first Roman emperor, Augustus, giving a first-person record of his life and accomplishments.The Res Gestae is especially significant because it gives an insight into the image Augustus portrayed to the Roman people. In its most basic form, the text was a list of achievements. Many of them violent, pecuniary, building or social focused. In this piece I started with a background on which I listed Roman Numerals - one for each achievement. I then took the most relevant latin word from each achievement and placed that next to the numeral. I then marked out those which related to violence (red), money (purple), building (yellow), social (blue).