Cy sensuit histoire cleopatre roine des egipciens · Centre for Early Modern Visual Culture

Title: Cy sensuit histoire cleopatre roine des egipciens
Period: 1400-1450;
Geographic: Ancient Egypt; North Africa; Ancient Rome; Italy; Egypt
Description: This illumination depicts Queen Cleopatra of Egypt killing herself. Her and her lover, Mark Antony, both killed themselves to avoid dying at the hands of Octavian. Boccaccio believes that Cleopatra killed herself by cutting her wrists and putting asps (vipers) at the wounds to poison herself. She is illustrated standing in the centre of the image with her wrists cut and her blood falling to the snakes by her feet to symbolize them poisoning her wounds.
Image Creator: Master of Boethius (Illuminator)
Type: Text; Illumination
Identifier: mta:20152
Language: frm
Source Name: Des cleres et nobles femmes, De claris mulieribus in an anonymous French translation
Parent Collection: 1410 Paris; 1410 Paris
Image: mta_20152_OBJ.jpg
Collection: Early Modern Women
Subject: Cleopatra VII; Important Women; Important Queens; Mark Antony; Octavian; Cleopatra