Wednesday, July 17, 2019

Cleopatra & Antony

Tommaso Costa
Cleopatra greeting Antony
1773
watercolor
British Museum

Charles-Joseph Natoire
Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra
ca. 1753-57
wash drawing
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Claude Vignon
Banquet of Antony and Cleopatra
ca. 1630
oil on panel
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut

Francesco Trevisani
Banquet of Cleopatra and Antony
ca. 1702
oil on canvas
Galleria Spada, Rome

Giacinto Gimignani
Cleopatra drops a pearl into a goblet of wine before Marc Antony
1647
etching
British Museum

Leandro Bassano
Feast of Antony and Cleopatra
ca. 1590
oil on canvas
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm

Jan de Bray
Banquet of Cleopatra
(costume portrait of the artist and his family)
1652
oil on canvas
Royal Collection, Great Britain

René-Antoine Houasse
Antony and Cleopatra
1680
oil on plaster ceiling
Château de Versailles

Jacob Jordaens
Cleopatra's Feast
1653
oil on canvas
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Anonymous Flemish Makers
Feast of Cleopatra
ca. 1650-1700
tapestry (silk and wool)
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg

Thomas Stothard
Intemperance - Mark Antony and Cleopatra
(sketch for staircase decoration at Burghley House, Northamptonshire)
ca. 1802
oil on canvas
Tate Gallery

Antony and Cleopatra

On Egypt sleeping under sky of brass
The twain gazed wistfully from terrace high,
And watched the Flood, through Delta rolling nigh,
Toward Sais or Bubastis slowly pass.

The Roman felt beneath his thick cuirass
Like captive soldier stilling infant's cry,
On his triumphant bosom swooning lie
Her form voluptuous in his close embrace.

Turning her pallid head between his arms
Toward him made mad by perfume's conquering charms,
She raised her mouth and crystalline, fond eye;

And o'er her bent, the Chieftain did behold
In her great orbs, starry with dots of gold,
Only a boundless sea where galleys fly.

– Edward Robeson Taylor (1897), translating the sonnet below


Tous deux ils regardaient, de la haute terrasse,
L'Egypte s'endormir sous un ciel étouffant
Et le Fleuve, à travers le Delta noir qu'il fend,
Vers Bubaste ou Saїs rouler son onde grasse.

Et le Romain sentait sous la lourde cuirasse,
Soldat captif berçant le sommeil d'un enfant,
Ployer et défaillir sur son coeur triomphant
Le corps voluptueux que son étreinte embrasse.

Tournant sa tête pâle entre ses cheveux bruns
Vers celui qu'enivraient d'invincibles parfums,
Elle tendit sa bouche et ses prunelles claires;

Et sur elle courbé, l'ardent Imperator
Vit dans ses larges yeux étoilés de points d'or
Toute une mer immense où fuyaient des galères.

– José-Maria de Heredia (1893)

Alessandro Turchi
Death of Cleopatra
(with corpse of Marc Antony in foreground)
ca. 1640
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Jean-Eugène-Charles Alberti
Proculeius preventing Cleopatra from stabbing herself
(with corpse of Marc Antony in background)
1810
oil on canvas
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Gillian Ayres
Antony and Cleopatra
1982
oil on canvas
Tate Gallery