Death of Cleopatra, oil on canvas, Italy, 17th-18th centuries.

Historical context

After the final defeat against the Romans, Mark Antony, mistakenly thinking Cleopatra was already dead, decided to take his own life and pierced himself with a sword. Despite his severe wound, he was still alive and, according to Plutarch, was carried to the queen's mausoleum, where he died in her presence after a brief farewell. Faced with his death and her own impending humiliation, Cleopatra also chose suicide, allowing herself to be bitten by a venomous snake in order to preserve her royal dignity and control over her fate.

Artistic qualities

The painting represents the tradition of the Bologna (Emilia-Romagna) school, one of the most important centers of Italian painting of the 17th and 18th centuries, originating in the circle of Guido Reni and continued by artists such as Cesare and Benedetto Gennari, Elisabetta Sirani, Donato Creti and Domenico Maria Canuti. Characteristic of this milieu are the idealized, pale complexion of the models, softly guided chiaroscuro, calm expressions and elegant half-figure shots - elements also clearly present in the depiction of Cleopatra's death. This motif, based on Reni's widespread compositional pattern, was often taken up by Bolognese disciples and imitators in the 18th century. A set of formal features, such as a neutral background, subtle modeling and iconography devoid of royal insignia, allows us to associate the painting with Emilia/Bologna and date it to the period around 1700-1760, in the circle of late continuators of Reni's aesthetic.