Cleopatra regina Egiptorum · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Cleopatra regina Egiptorum
Subject: Cleopatra VII; Antony; Octavian; Pearl Earrings; Greed; Important Women; Famous Women; Important Queens; Cleopatra
Period: 1450-1500;
Geographic: North Africa; Ancient Rome; Italy; Egypt
Description: This engraving depicts two separate scenes. The left side of the engraving depicts Queen Cleopatra of Egypt sitting at a dinner table with her husband Antony beside her. Cleopatra had very expensive tastes and demanded a feast which would cost an outrageous amount of money. When Antony did not provide the entire feast Cleopatra demanded, she took out one of her pearl earrings and dissolved it in her drink and drank it to get the luxuriousness she desired. Cleopatra is depicted drinking the pearl in this image. There is a third figure in this scene, which is a man named Lucius Plautus who was called to be a judge of the feast. The right side of the engraving depicts the suicide of Antony. After realizing the forces of Octavian were on their way to destroy them, Antony plunged his sword into his chest, as depicted in the engraving. Cleopatra is depicted kneeling over his body before she kills herself as well.
Image Creator: Anonymous (Engraver)
Type: Text; Woodcut Engraving
Identifier: mta:18229
Language: lat
Source Name: Iohannis Bocacij in librum de claris mulieribus
Parent Collection: 1487 Leuven; 1487 Leuven
Image: mta_18229_OBJ.png
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Cleopatra VII; Antony; Octavian; Pearl Earrings; Greed; Important Women; Famous Women; Important Queens; Cleopatra

Media: mta_18229_OBJ.png