Cleopatra in Art (Discussion)

Image collections | Ancient Art | Medieval-19c. art | Other ancient art | Contemporary artists

Image collections

Cleopatra images from Kosta Hadavas's Roman Civilization course at Beloit college. Kudos to prof. Hadavas for assembling such a great collection (apparently scanned, not from the web) for a course with a much broader subject matter. Hadavas's coin comparisons page is interesting, particularly as it also juxtaposes the British Museum. See also his similar page on Caesar.

Cleopatra: History and Myth Syllabus of course by Eric Orlin, University of Puget Sound has an excellent bibliography and visual representations (mostly paintings) of Cleopatra, some hyperlinked, most of which are now linked to from my image gallery.

Argentinian forum board on which "alex1976-nazgul," from Cartagena, Spain, posted a lengthy set of Cleopatra image URLs.

Italian page wih images of Cleopatra, part of a wonderful image omnigatherum L'antica Roma nell'immaginario collettivo by Danila Comastri Montanari, whose library looks like mine.

Cleopatra art and links from Culture 4.0, "a contextual guide and internet index to western civilization," apparently the cat's meow in 2001. Probably worth a billion dollars, too.

Ancient Art

The Hermitage: "Arsinoe or Cleopatra?" press release on the re-identification of a Hermitage statue included in the "From History to Myth" exhibit. Includes zoomable images of other ancient depictions of these Ptolemaic queens.

British Museum: "Limestone head of a woman resembling Cleopatra VII." The image—everywhere on the Web as "Cleopatra" is "now thought to be a woman who loosely modelled herself on Cleopatra, perhaps one of her entourage from Egypt." The lack of a diadem is critical.

British Museum: "Blue glass intaglio with a portrait of Cleopatra VII"Interesting 1c. gem includes the triple uraeus, usually only seem on Egyptian representations.

The British Museum has three coins. dated Bronze 51-30 BC , Bronze 48-30 BC and a silver denarius of Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony. (32 BC).

Harvard University Collections, with quite a few coins.

Where was Cleopatra's signature found? from Dig, the archaeology magazine for kids. Cool!

Discussion on Cleopatra's signature from Willy Clarysse, "The papyrological bulletin."

Medieval-19c. art

The remarkable story of Edmonia Lewis' scupture Cleopatra. Article by Stephen May, Smithsonian Magazine (1996). Lewis (?1840–?1909), a black woman, produced this striking statue of the dead Cleopatra in the 1870s, to critical disdain. Before being rediscovered in the 1970s it spent a stint in a saloon, and as a grave-marker for a racehorse (named, of course, Cleopatra).

Three images by Edmonia Lewis, including Cleopatra.

Jacopo de' Barbari: "Cleopatra," drawing and print (British Museum)

"Cleopatra dropping the pearl into the wine" by William Kent after Carlo Maratta (Italy, c. 1710-1720)

"The Death of Cleopatra and the Death of Harmonia" a Chelsea factory porcelain "Cleopatra" (c. 1760)

Getty: Cleopatra Presented with the Head and Limbs of Her Own Child (French, c. 1415), from Bocaccio's Concerning The Fates of Illustrious Men and Women. The same manuscript also has The Tomb of Marc Antony and Cleopatra.

Getty: "The Banquet of Cleopatra" by Gerard Hoet (Dutch 18c.)

Getty: Basin with Scenes from the Life of Cleopatra (Dutch or Flemish, 1620-1625)

Other ancient art

Fragment of a basalt Egyptian-style statue of Ptolemy I, founder of Cleopatra's "Ptolemaic" dynasty—excellent object-page from the British Museum.

Contemporary artists

Ever and Co. / Estelle, a French artist with a distinctive photoshop/photograph and high-fashion style. On Deviantart she calls herself "Everestelle." Her Cleopatra is good, as is her Queen of Sheba.

Fantasy artist Vincente Segrelles takes time out from naked-women chained to rocks threatened by frog-dragons to draw Cleopata.

Victor Zinuhov, talented artist from Ukraine. His modernist Cleopatra doesn't do it for me, but his sculptures, murals and other paintings are quite impressive.

Frank Brunner, a long-running, talented fantasy artist with a striking Cleopatra (wish it were large).

Sue Anna Joe: Cleopatra.

Elfwood: Bridget E. Wilde's Cleocatra.

Quino Marin , a talented Madrid artist with a distinctive style. His Cleopatra is appealing, but I really loved his illustrated maps of Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Elfwood: Jennifer Harvey a talented sixteen-year-old artist, with a Cleopatra.

Elfwood: Elyse B. Gray an eighteen year-old Michigan artist, with a Cleopatra.

Elfwood: Johan Hertz's Cleopatra.

Elfwood: Shannon Angele Giel's Cleopatra's Eternal Slumber.

Elfwood: Diony K. Cook's Cleopatra Bunny.

Elfwood: David R. Benkendorf's Caesar and Cleopatra.

Elfwood: Thomas M Butler with a death of Cleopatra.

Elwfood: Lisa L. Hart , with Cleopatra (the american movie version).

Elfwood: Dustin 'Draeven' Hotomi's CleoPatra.

Elfwood: Sylvia Adao's Her Last Moments.