Cleopatra

£320.00

Acrylic painting on canvas.

30 x 40cm.

As Shakespeare would have it Cleopatra the Seventh, ageing but potent Ptolomaic queen of Egypt, bewitched simple Roman emperor Antony with mind games and sexual manipulation. They entered into a grand obsessive passion which came to an end when Antony committed suicide. Cleopatra followed suit, choosing death by snakebite (from two asps hidden in a fig basket) rather than humiliation by imminent Roman conquest.

Vain, jealous, histrionic murderer and wayward temptress who consistently betrayed those around her? Or much-loved supreme ruler, highly educated scholar, brilliant linguist and fiercely protective mother of seven?