Editing Caracalla (section)

=== Eighteenth-century artworks and the French Revolution ===
[[File:Jean-Baptiste Greuze - Septimius Severus and Caracalla - WGA10673.jpg|thumb|''Septimius Severus and Caracalla'', [[Jean-Baptiste Greuze]], 1769 ([[Louvre]])]]
Caracalla's memory was revived in the art of late eighteenth-century French painters. His tyrannical career became the subject of the work of several French painters such as [[Jean-Baptiste Greuze|Greuze]], {{ill|Julien de Parme|fr|Julien de Parme}}, [[Jacques-Louis David|David]], [[Jean Bonvoisin|Bonvoisin]], [[Jacques-Augustin-Catherine Pajou|J.-A.-C. Pajou]], and [[Guillaume Guillon-Lethière|Lethière]]. Their fascination with Caracalla was a reflection of the growing discontent of the French people with the [[List of French monarchs|monarchy]]. Caracalla's visibility was influenced by the existence of several literary sources in French that included both translations of ancient works and contemporary works of the time. Caracalla's likeness was readily available to the painters due to the distinct style of his portraiture and his unusual soldier-like choice of fashion that distinguished him from other emperors. The artworks may have served as a warning that [[absolute monarchy]] could become the horror of tyranny and that disaster could come about if the regime failed to reform. Art historian Susan Wood suggests that this reform was for the absolute monarchy to become a [[constitutional monarchy]], as per the original goal of revolution, rather than the [[republic]] that it eventually became. Wood also notes the similarity between Caracalla and his crimes leading to his assassination and the eventual uprising against, and death of, King Louis XVI: both rulers had died as a result of their apparent tyranny.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Wood|first=Susan|date=2010|title=Caracalla and the French Revolution: A Roman tyrant in eighteenth-century iconography|journal=Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome}}</ref>