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The Lost Portrait of Cleopatra
"Cleopatra -engraving in steel after the
Encaustic Cleopatra" John Shury
(c.1826) engraving
Painting of Sorrento" . John Sartain (c.1880)
after the Encaustic Painting of Cleopatra
The year was 1818. The location
was ruins of the Roman Emperor Hadrian's Villa outside Rome. The wealthy owner
of the estate grounds on which the ruins lay had his head groundskeeper engaged
in a general cleanup and renovation of the site. Since there was a considerable
amount of usable scrap lumber on the estate, the lumber was collected from
around the very large complex and sold in a lot to a dealer.
The lumber merchant found, among the scrap, a large wooden crate. From the aged
wood and antique iron nails, it appeared to be of very ancient origins. The
crate had been found in an underground cellar at the Emperor's Villa. The crate
was carefully opened. Inside was a broken slate tablet with an overlay of dimly
visible colors underneath a thick and dust-encrusted varnish. It was difficult
to discern the image, but the 16 pieces fit together like a puzzle.
Painters were called in to remove the thick, mottled layers of varnish. Colors
with an amazing brilliance and polished finish began to emerge. The astonishing
picture slowly revealed a figure of a young, beautiful woman clad in a crimson
tunic, with a jeweled golden crown. Matching the crown were a set of earrings,
necklace and pendant on her forehead that were inlaid with rubies and emeralds,
and the jewelry had fine pearls mounted on the edges. A gold armband with pearls
suspended on gold chains and a bracelet of gold were on her right arm.
The jeweled necklace had an intriguing feature- the individual gold segments
resembled oval-shaped Egyptian cartouches with hieroglyphics embossed on their
surfaces.
But the painting had another, more startling aspect- the young woman had a
serpent coiled around her left forearm, and it was in the very act of striking
her on the exposed left breast. A pair of puncture marks from a previous strike
seeped blood. Her expression was one of profound grief and turmoil. Tears flowed
from her sorrowful, upturned eyes. The parted lips revealed the tongue pressed
forward between the teeth, as if the serpent's poison was swiftly taking effect.
The Royal person so vividly
portrayed could only be Queen Cleopatra, the last Pharaoh of Egypt, consort of
Julius Caesar before his assassination and, in later years, the devoted
wife of Mark Antony.
Further examination by experts revealed even more remarkable elements. The
painting itself, on a finely-ground surface of gray slate rock was determined to
be a supremely crafted example of the lost art of encaustic painting, employed
by the ancient Greeks and Romans. The artists of Caesar's time mixed powdered
pigments in into a heated mixture of tree-resin and wax. The hot, mixed
encaustic paint was skillfully applied to the slate tablets with a brass
spatula. When the painting was completed, the entire surface was melded into a
smooth finish by passing red-hot iron bars or braziers full of glowing embers
close to the painting's surface.
The technique of encaustic painting of this type faded into history soon after
Caesar's time and was lost during the Middle Ages. Experiments to revive the
lost art began only in the modern era. Furthermore, very few examples
exist of this type of encaustic from classical times, even today. For example,
over 3,000 Greek sculptures from the classical era have been cataloged, while
less than 200 paintings of any type are listed to date.
But where could the clearly ancient painting have come from? Certainly the
artist would have been one of the best of his time, and there is a relatively
short era of about 250 years during which the process of encaustic painting was
developed and refined. It would necessarily been after the time of Cleopatra
since it depicted her death by suicide. This leaves a very narrow time period of
perhaps 50 years before the technique of encaustic was lost to history.
First let us recall the circumstances of Cleopatra's death. The Emperor
Octavian, Julius Caesar's nephew, had come with Roman imperial forces to wage
war on Marc Antony and Cleopatra, and defeated the Egyptian forces. Marc Antony,
returning from battle was told (incorrectly) that Cleopatra had already been
killed.
Antony then fell on his sword, to
commit suicide. Cleopatra, hearing this, rushed to him, and he died in her arms.
Cleopatra, who had lived in Rome with Julius Caesar knew of the Roman custom of
displaying their prisoners from vanquished nations in their victory parades.
Royal prisoners were marched with chains on their wrists and ankles and led
through the streets of Rome. The thought was unbearable to Cleopatra, and she
devised a way to commit suicide, tricking the Roman guards that Octavian had
charged with watching her.
Although the accounts vary, the story believed by Octavian was that an Egyptian
servant brought Cleopatra a basket of figs, inside which a poisonous serpent was
hidden. Cleopatra, with her two faithful attendants, arrayed herself in her
finest clothes and jewelry, wearing a crown and ornaments of royalty. She then
ate some figs, reaching into the basket until bitten by the asp. Her attendants
arranged her on her deathbed and then followed her example. Octavian himself is
said to have seen the barely perceptible bite marks on her arm and the serpent's
track marks in the sand outside the temple building.
Octavian was furious, having been tricked, and having lost his opportunity to
display Cleopatra in chains in his triumphal parade. Later, back in Rome he
commissioned an artist, most likely the Greek, Timomachus, to paint a picture of
Cleopatra as she committed suicide. (Timomachus had also painted Cleopatra
previously when she toured Greece with Marc Antony.) Octavian then
displayed the picture on a cart, which was then drawn through the streets in his
victory parade. It created a sensation and was viewed by thousands. Later
Octavian put the painting on public display in the temple of Saturn in
Rome as a votive offering.
Years passed and the painting was handed down from emperor to emperor. One
hundred and sixty years later, the Emperor Hadrian had an extravagant, palatial
villa built outside of Rome at Tivoli. He furnished it lavishly and decorated it
with fabulous works of art. The painting was evidently part of his vast
collection. At some point in time, likely years after Hadrian's death, it was
carefully packed in a crate and hidden in a cellar, probably for safekeeping in
times of war, invasion or the barbarian pillages that occurred in later years.
There it lay, forgotten and hidden for centuries until its re-discovery in 1818.
Several unique elements of the
painting attest to it's authenticity and ancient origins. Cleopatra is depicted,
not as an Egyptian of the type we are familiar with from the tombs of the
ancient pharaohs of 1500 BC, but as the Macedonian that she actually was.
Cleopatra was a direct descendant of Ptolemy I, who was both the boyhood friend
of Alexander the Great and a general of Alexander's forces. He was given charge
of Egypt by Alexander and installed himself as the new ruler of Egypt. He
was instrumental in the founding of the great city of Alexandria on the
delta of the Nile, as the new capital city of Egypt, replacing the ancient
capitol of Memphis, which was farther upriver. Thirteen generations of
Ptolemies ruled Egypt. Cleopatra VII was the last of her generation, and the
last Pharaoh of Egypt.
Cleopatra, in the highly detailed painting is pictured as having dark
blond or auburn hair and deep blue eyes. Alexander the Great, who was ethnically
Macedonian, (not genetically related to the coastal Greeks that he conquered)
was also blond-haired and blue-eyed. Many Macedonians even today still have the
genetic characteristics with the prevalence of recessive genes that produce fair
skin and light eye coloration. That fact that Cleopatra was not Egyptian, but a
descendant of Macedonian royalty, may be difficult for many to accept, but it is
nonetheless true. The dynasty founded by Ptolemy was essentially comprised of
Macedonian/Greek colonialists. (The names "Cleopatra" and "Ptolemy" are also
Macedonian.)
Cleopatra's hair was depicted including individual strands, and is
arranged in elaborate braids sprinkled with gold dust. This is in complete
accordance with the marble sculptures of Cleopatra from Caesar's Rome. (Link
to Marble Sculpture of Cleopatra) The hair is obviously very long, and twin
braids encircle the neck, ending in a knot into which three rose blossoms,
matching her silken tunic, are inserted. The texture of the the hair is shown to
be of the type that grows in spiraling coils, also consistent with the Roman
sculpture portraits. Interestingly, her eyebrows were also sprinkled with gold
dust. (Image
link to Cleopatra Bust)
Another very intriguing and significant element is the design of the crown and
jewelry that Cleopatra wears. The crown is not Egyptian in character at all,
rather it is nearly identical to the Macedonian crowns imprinted on coins minted
by Ptolemy V and Ptolemy VIII. (The armband is strikingly similar to one worn by
the wife of Heinrich Schliemann, who had excavated it from the ruins of Troy,
which he discovered in 1865, years after the painting was found in 1818.)
The only item that has distinctly
Egyptian motifs is the necklace, which apparently has golden cartouches embossed
with hieroglyphic symbols. A cartouche is an oval shape, inside of which names
or titles are inscribed. It is likely that the necklace has the name of
Cleopatra and her royal titles (one being Pharaoh of Egypt), inscribed thereon.
The crown and jewelry are inlaid with emeralds and rubies that royal
wealth alone could afford. The background of the painting is a shimmering
curtain of dark green that, in an artistic touch, echoes the emeralds, as her
deep red tunic echoes the color of the rubies. The painting, after its
discovery, first passed through the hands of a few owners, at one time even
having been pawned. It was later purchased by the Barron de Benneval (French)
residing in Sorrento, Italy in 1860, who exhibited it in Paris, London, Munich
and Rome. Two engravings after the painting (pictured here) enable us to
determine the details as well as concise and written descriptions (listed in the
Resources below) by eyewitnesses during the mid 1800s.
Cleopatra is shown to be quite beautiful, as the ancient Roman and Greek sources
of Dio Cassius, and Appian have attested. (Recently there have been statements
based on the image of Cleopatra on coins that are contradictory to this. It is
more likely, however, that the coins were simply clumsily re-worked images of
her father, Ptolemy XII.) The Greek and Roman busts of Cleopatra show a woman
with symmetrical features and smooth skin. There is a moderate bridge to the
nose and slightly flared nostrils, but nothing that would be considered out of
proportion or the least bit unsightly. In fact, Marc Antony fell in love with
her at first sight, and Julius Caesar also had a long love affair with her. Both
men were among the most powerful and influential of their time, and both risked
public censure to continue in their relationship with her. Cleopatra , who
could speak nine languages, had an appealing, musical tone to her voice and was
charming in conversation as well as being very persuasive. Cleopatra was
actually the first Ptolemaic Pharaoh who actually learned to speak Egyptian.
At present, the whereabouts
of the painting appears to be unknown to the general public. Its last recorded
location was with the Barron de Benneval in Sorrento. It is likely that in the
chaos of wars in the early 20th century, the painting was either hidden for
safekeeping, lost in bombing raids or pillaged by invaders. If it is ever
relocated, it would be one of the world's greatest art treasures and an
object of significant scientific and historical interest. If proven authentic it
could help resolve the question of: "What did Cleopatra really look like?"
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