#the death of cleopatra

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Jean-André Rixens (French, 1846-1925) The Death of Cleopatra, 1874

[pmamtraveller]

THE DEATH OF CLEOPATRA /1659-63/ by GUIDO CAGNACCI

The painting represents the last active ruler of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt, Cleopatra, in her last moments following her suicide. She is portrayed as calm and serene, in a resigned state, after being bitten by an asp. It is a representation that gives way to the structural evocation of tragic beauty and nobility at her last moments.

Cagnacci applies a very dynamic composition for this dramatic moment. The queen is reclined, and all around are her attendants in expressive gestures and facial expressions, creating the feeling of urgency and tension.

The coiled asp on Cleopatra's arm symbolizes death and, at the same time, the power of choice in her suicide, cementing Cleopatra's death not as a tragic end but as a courageous act of defiance. The rich colors and textures of the fabric and skin demonstrate to a great extent the sensuality and tragedy of her character.

The chiaroscuro, a great contrast of light and dark, elicits Cleopatra's vulnerable state and stresses just how much the scene is intense. Her face almost seems to be a fusion between the emotions of resignation and anguish. It is the severe psychology of the last moment in her life that Cagnacci seized, the emotional status more than the simple fact of dying.

[mote-historie]

Hans Makart, The Death of Cleopatra, 1875.

Liechtenstein, The Princely Collection

Hans Makart was a 19th-century Austrian academic history painter, designer, and decorator. He is best known for his influence on Gustav Klimt and other Austrian artists, but in his own era he was considered an important artist himself and a celebrity figure in the high culture of Vienna and attended with almost cult-like adulation.

Makart was the son of a chamberlain at the Mirabell Palace in Salzburg, Austria, born in the former residence of the prince-archbishops of Salzburg, the city in which Mozart had been born. Initially, he received his training in painting at the Vienna Academy between 1850 and 1851 from Johann Fischbach. While in the Academy, German art was under the rule of a classicism, which was entirely intellectual and academic—clear and precise drawing, sculpturesque modelling, and pictorial erudition were esteemed above all. Makart, who was a poor draughtsman, but who had a passionate and sensual love of color, was impatient to escape the routine of art school drawing. For his fortune, he was found by his instructors to be devoid of all talent and forced to leave the Vienna Academy.

[anothermessagetoyou]

[inspofromancientworld]

The Death of Cleopatra and its Ancient Origins

By Adalbert von Roessler - http://www.duesseldorfer-auktionshaus.de/de/katalog/view/01_2013/600, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26512773

Quintus Horatius Flaccus (65-8 BCE), better known as Horace, was a Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus, also known as Octavian (Gaius Julius Ceasar Agustus). He lived during the change in Rome from republic to empire as well as the death of Cleopatra in 300 BCE. His writing style relied on the ancient, even to him, Greek poets who lived during the Archaic period of Greek history, while using his writing to both mock and place blame on those in power and to praise and entertain. This alacrity with tone and duality made him popular among many Romantic poets, inspiring many of them to write their own works, such as Andrew Marvell's Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland, which takes its cues from The Death of Cleopatra as it reflects on the death of Charles I.

By Classical Numismatic Group, Inc. http://www.cngcoins.com, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87168882

Cleopatra was the last active ruler of Egypt, the only of the Ptolomic dynasty to bother learning the Egyptian language, among others, well read and highly intelligent, as well as a consummate states person caught in the fallout of her Father's (Ptolemy XII Auletes) fleeing from Egypt to Rome after a revolt by her sister Bernice IV. She started her reign with her sister and brother (Ptolemy XIII), but the trouble between them led to a civil war. During this time, Pompey (Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus), Roman general and statesman, fled to Egypt after a battle against Julius Caesar. Ptolemy XIII, at the advice of his eunuchs, ambushed and killed Pompey, which brought the wrath of Caesar. Caesar tried to fix the problem between the three rulers, but Potheinos, the chief eunuch advisor, mistrusted Caesar, thinking he favored Cleopatra, sent forces to besiege her and Caesar. After the siege was broken and another battle, Caesar set up Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIV as rulers. She maintained an affair with Caesar then after his assassination and assassinated Ptolemy XIV soon after. She then sided with Mark Antony and Marcus Aemeilius Lepidus in the power vacuum left behind, and embarked on an affair with Mark Antony while funding and supporting his military campaigns. When Mark Antony took Cleopatra as his wife and divorced his wife Octavia Minor, he lost the support of the Roman Senate, leading to the declaration of war against Cleopatra. Not wanting to go into exile to Rome as a treasure, a prisoner in a Roman triumphal procession, she poisoned herself rather than allow that.

By Ancient Roman painter(s) - VIII.2.39 Pompeii. Casa di Giuseppe II or Casa di Fusco or House of Emperor Joseph II., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67628691

Despite this, or perhaps because of this, his poem The Death of Cleopatra is ambiguous about the ruler. While he calls for revelry, 'Now let us drink; with nimble feet/Now let us strike the holy ground;', he also laments and praises her 'But Egypt knows her dream a cheat/Begot with Mareotic [referring to Lake Mariout in Northern Egypt] fumes…She homeward steers, resolved to die/preferring death to slavery/Or exile from her own domains.'

You can read the whole poem here.

[spiritsdancinginthenight]

The death of Cleopatra Oil on Canvas, 1892, Reginald Arthur  (1871–1934).

[zegalba]

"The Death of Cleopatra" by Giovanni Pedrini Giampietrino.

[mysterious-secret-garden]

John Collier - The death of Cleopatra.

[cestbienplusbeau]

[tytclin]

The death of Cleopatra in art

[panafrocore]

The Death of Cleopatra by Edmonia Lewis (1876)

Cleopatra (69 – 30 BCE), the legendary queen of Egypt from 51 to 30 BCE, is often best known for her dramatic suicide, allegedly from the fatal bite of a venomous snake. Here, Edmonia Lewis portrayed Cleopatra in the moment after her death, wearing her royal attire, in majestic repose on a throne. The identical sphinx heads flanking the throne represent the twins she bore with Roman general Marc…

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Allessandro Turchi (Italian, 1578-1649) La Mort de Cléopâtre, 1640 Musée du Louvre

[pmamtraveller]

THE DEATH OF CLEOPATRA | 1881| by JUAN LUNA

The painting is a captivating one that captures the tragic demise of the legendary EGYPTIAN queen. Painted in 1881 during LUNA'S stay in ROME, the work showcases the artist's remarkable talent and attention to detail.

The painting's central focus is CLEOPATRA'S lifeless body, adorned in royal regalia and lying on an ornate golden bed. The transparent cloth around her upper body plays into the common "eroticized" portrayal of CLEOPATRA in 19th century art. Surrounding CLEOPATRA are her two servants, IRAS and CHARMION , also in various states of collapse, signifying the dramatic nature of the scene.

The funerary setting, with elements like the sphinx, canopic jars, and a statue of ANUBIS, creates a somber and mysterious atmosphere. The barely visible slithering snake's tail at the foot of the bed is a nod to the popular legend of CLEOPATRA'S death by snake bite. LUNA'S masterful use of composition, attention to detail, and dramatic lighting work together to evoke a powerful and evocative depiction of this iconic historical moment.

[derangedrhythms]

I'll make death love me;

William Shakespeare, from 'Anthony and Cleopatra'

[catoswound]

actually can a mark antony lover tell me good things about him. i only like that part about curio corrupting him. kind of iconic

[catilinas]

ig shakespeare's globe doesn't do performances on mondays but. so no antony and cleopatra on the anniversary of the battle of actium? :(