The suicide of Cleopatra: the asp is wriggling up the left arm of the sleeping Cleopatra. Etching by J.B. de Poilly after a statue in the Vatican.

  • Poilly, Jean-Baptiste de, 1669-1728.
Reference:
42938i
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view The suicide of Cleopatra: the asp is wriggling up the left arm of the sleeping Cleopatra. Etching by J.B. de Poilly after a statue in the Vatican.

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The suicide of Cleopatra: the asp is wriggling up the left arm of the sleeping Cleopatra. Etching by J.B. de Poilly after a statue in the Vatican. Wellcome Collection. Public Domain Mark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Description

Cleopatra VII (69 BC-30 BC), Egyptian Queen, lover of Julius Caesar and later the wife of Mark Antony. After the Roman armies of Octavian (the future Emperor Augustus) defeated their combined forces, Antony and Cleopatra killed themselves, and Egypt fell under Roman domination. Rather than be dragged through the city in which she had been borne as a queen, she killed herself, possibly by means of an asp, symbol of divine royalty.

Publication/Creation

In Roma (alla Pace) : Nella stamp.a di Domenico de Rossi

Physical description

1 print : etching ; image 17.4 x 31.4 cm

Lettering

Statua di Cleopatra Regina d'Egitto che dorme con l'aspide legato al braccio sinistro. Nel corridore di Belvedere in Vaticano. Gio: Batis: de Poilly sculp Bears number top right : VIII

Reference

Wellcome Collection 42938i

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