Womens' History Month
The theme of Cleopatra, and her involvement in the transition of Rome from republic to empire, is the subject of “Cleopatra: Her History, Her Myth” (2022), by author Francine Prose. It is a story that never grows old. What makes this scholarly contribution to the legend worthwhile is that it proves a woman historian can be objective about a controversial historic woman. There is no bias to be found where it might be expected, nor prejudice where it wouldn't. Francine Prose is fair about incidents that scandalized Plutarch. As I read I thought -who is the prude?
One might argue both sides, but to avoid pedantry I will play the role of pedant, instead. Following, therefore, is my iconography of visual works of art cited in “Cleopatra: Her History, Her Myth” (2022). Researching the works cited in the book, I quickly discovered there are many more examples of art on the subject of Cleopatra in the canon of fine art than are mentioned in the book. My list is limited to works of art cited in the book. A defect of the publication is the lack of a bibliography of citations for the works of art mentioned in the text.
Legend has it that Cleopatra tested various poisons on condemned men, possibly in anticipation of her own suicide. The first work of art cited is by Alexandre Cabanel “Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Condemned Prisoners” (1887). References to the work in the public domain give the painting's size as 65 x 110 in., or 87.6 x 148 cm. It is painted in the art-historical style known as Academism. The original is in the Royal Museum of fine arts, Antwerpen.
Earlier, Giovanni Pedrini Giampietrino painted “The Death of Cleopatra” (1504). Giampietrino painted more than one version of Cleopatra's heroic death. Incidentally, heroic women were a specialty of Giampietrino, which included subjects such as Salome and the Madonna. "The Death of Cleopatra" is a typical, Late Renaissance, Mannerist easel painting. It is more restrained than some, but decidedly tenebristic, by which I mean it is deliberately dark-for-darkness-sake. The original measures 22 x 28 in., or 57 x 73 cm. The technique is oil paint on panel. It is in the Musée du Louvre, Paris.
“Cleopatra with the Asp” (1628) is positively attributed to Guido Reni. According to sources in the public domain, the painting's provenance changed no less than 11 times, between Bologna (1599-1600), Rome (1600-1602), Bologna (1603-1605), Rome (1605-1610), Bologna (1611-1612), Rome (1612), Bologna (1615-1616), Mantua (1617-1621), Rome (1622-1629), and Naples (1624-1626, 1640-1642). It was subsequently acquired by Frederick, Prince of Wales in 1749, and is in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle, Berkshire. It is in oil paint on canvas, with minimum measurements of 45 x 37 in., or 114.2 x 95.0 cm. A delightful anecdote is that it was hung in the Prince of Wales' dressing room at Leicester House. Was that intended as a memorial not to fall for a woman's wiles, as did Marc Antony?
Edmonia Lewis created the monumental marble statue “Death of Cleopatra” (1876). This interesting person is my most valued discovery in the book. Francine Prose writes,
In 1876, the American sculptor Edmonia Lewis created a very different image of the death of Cleopatra. She chose to portray the queen as Caucasian, though Lewis, who was Black, elsewhere represented Black women in her work. Her image of the dying monarch is neither eroticized, ecstatic, nor sensational.
Edmonia Lewis (1844–1907), who was (obviously) a woman, set her sights on, and attained, a balanced emotional affect absent from more sensationalistic treatments of the subject of Cleopatra. The controversy seems to be stuck on the racial incongruity of an African-American artist NOT casting Cleopatra as a black African, as if the fact that an African American (woman) was author of the monument is not stupifyingly unexpected in itself. “Death of Cleopatra” was sculpted in marble. Dimensions are 62.9 x 31.2 x 45.9 in., or 160 x 79.4 x 116.8 cm. It is in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., United States of America.
Not involving Cleopatra directly, but involved in the matter of Cleopatra, is the painting by Jean-Joseph Taillasson “Virgil Reading the Aeneid to Augustus and Octavia” (1787), an early neoclassical period painting. It is in the National Gallery, London. Octavia's conduct throughout the ordeal was honorable. Octavia was a person of as much historical stature as Cleopatra, and in possession of all the virtue Cleopatra had not.
The Banquet of Cleopatra (1744), by Giambattista Tiepolo, is a Rococo-era panorama depicting a drinking contest said by Pliny to have taken place between Marc Antony and Cleopatra. An iconographic bibliography (such as this) is not the place for comment, beyond stating the obvious, that the masterpiece is epic. The painting captures the moment the pearl is dropped into the glass. Dimensions are 98 x 141 in., or 250 x 357 cm. The work's provenance includes Udine, Venice, Veneto, Würzburg, Madrid, and the National Gallery of Victoria, 180 St. Kilda Road, Melbourne Victoria, Australia.
Another pictorial reference to Cleopatra dropping the pearl is an unsigned painting “from the workshop of” Carlo Maratta, circa 1695. Dimensions are 45 x 32 in., or 114 x 82 cm. It is in the collection of The Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America.
The Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema painting of “The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra, 41 BC” (1885) is notable for its future-looking cinematic visual composition. The ancient battleships depicted in the background, symbolic of the power of the players involved, are truly breath-taking. The work's provenance includes TV director Allen Funt. Oil on panel, dimensions 25 x 36 in., or 65.4 x 91.4 cm. Commissioned by Samuel W. Hawk, New York (1883-1885); Frau von Munkhausen (acquired from the above in 1887); Sir Joseph Benjamin Robinson (since 1923), Sotheby's, London (1963), James Coats, New York (1963); Allen Funt (1966); Sotheby's, Belgravia (1973); Leger Gallery, London (1973); Galerie Royal, Vancouver (circa 1978); Sotheby's, London, for The Margaret Brown Collection (1987), Christie's, London, for a private collection, New York (1993).