Cleopatra and the Asp
Michel Corneille, the elder, Cleopatra and the Asp, 1650/1660, oil on canvas, Museum Purchase: Funds provided by the Dr. Henry Victor Adix, Jr. Trust, public domain, 2001.13
This work is not currently on view.
- Title
Cleopatra and the Asp
- Artist
- Date
1650/1660
- Period
High Baroque (ca. 1625-late 17th century)
- Medium
oil on canvas
- Dimensions (H x W x D)
55 in x 71 3/8 in
- Collection Area
European Art
- Category
Paintings
- Object Type
painting
- Culture
French
- Credit Line
Museum Purchase: Funds provided by the Dr. Henry Victor Adix, Jr. Trust
- Accession Number
2001.13
- Copyright
public domain
- Terms
Michel Corneille was one of the founders of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in France. In keeping with the theories of French classicism, which he and his colleagues expounded, he used the story of Cleopatra's suicide to illustrate a moral lesson.
After the defeat of her paramour Marc Anthony, Cleopatra preferred suicide to submission to the victorious Octavius. She chose a dramatic death––clasping a poisonous asp to her breast––that would make her the subject of artists through the ages. In Corneille's version, she is depicted as a noble leader at the moment of choice between dishonor and death.
- Exhibitions
2003 The Triumph of French Painting: 17th Century Masterpieces from the Museums of FRAME Portland Art Museum; Birmingham Museum of Art; Meadows Museum