Tiepolo (1696–1770) in 1743–44 has long been a showpiece of the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). It has recently undergone conservation and cleaning in time for its generously spaced rehanging in a striking position in the recently reopened St Kilda Road premises.
The painting is grand in both scale (249x346 cm) and imagery, and depicts the sumptuous feast where Cleopatra outclassed her lover Marc Antony in their wager of excess. Challenging each other to spend the most on a single banquet, Cleopatra became the winner by dissolving a precious pearl in vinegar and drinking it. Tiepolo shows an extravagantly-clothed blonde-haired Cleopatra seated opposite Lucius Plancus, keeper of the bet, dressed in a luxurious Eastern styled outfit trimmed with furs. Antony, in Roman military splendour, is seated with his back to the viewer, his profile turned to Cleopatra who holds aloft the pearl. The position of the various figures, together with the grid-patterned floor, draw the viewer’s eye to this pivotal point.
The painting was acquired by the NGV in 1933 through the Felton Bequest and was an expensive purchase at the time at $25,000. A favourable article appeared in Art in Australia in 1933, which included a full-page colour reproduction and an extensive citation from Pliny’s Natural Historie of the World relating the depicted episode and outlining the ‘romantic history’ of the painting which was once owned by Augustus III (1696–1763), Elector of Saxony and King of Poland.
The article, perhaps written to persuade the public that it was money well spent, quotes from a similarly motivated letter from the King’s ambassador, Algarotti, written from Venice in 1744, to Count Bruhl, ‘a powerful minister of the king and an ardent art collector saying that he had persuaded M. Tiepolo to finish the picture for his Majesty and described it as the “most beautiful, noblest and richest that the modern schools can produce”’.
Those wishing to discover more about this impressive painting will be delighted by Tiepolo’s Cleopatra. This new book written by Jaynie Anderson (Herald Chair of Fine Arts and Head of the School of Fine Arts, Classical Studies and Archaeology, Melbourne University) takes the reader on a detailed exploration of the painting. The book is an impressive publication; a large format hardback with glossy pages, numerous full colour illustrations and a full list of illustrations, bibliography and index. It is indeed a luxury for such a book to be produced about