Inspiration from Cleopatra

           It is always interesting to use the images from ancient world as an inspiration for the new work. Cleopatra seems to be a great source that inspired artist to create.

                                                                Guido Cagnacci, 1658

                                                              Reginald Arthur, 1892

             The two paintings about are both named “The death of Cleopatra” that show the imagination of the artist about the story of her death. In many ancient sources, people believed that Cleopatra was bitten by an asp. In Cagnacci’s painting, the asp was biting her arm and there are some people around her. However, this story was changed when Shakespeare wrote the tragedy “Anthony and Cleopatra” and re-introduce a part of the story, that Cleopatra was clutching a snake to her breast. This is shown in Arthur’s painting above.
             Only with the death of Cleopatra, artists have many ways to imagine and describe it. That’s why with the story of her life, Joseph L.Mankiewics can made a great film in the cinema history. It was “Cleopatra”, a British-American-Swiss epic drama film in 1963 starring by Elizabeth Taylor. This is the portrait of her on the film.
       

            “Cleopatra” was the most expensive film in history with US $44 millions spending for it. The film earned four Academy Awards and got US $57.5 millions in total. After this film, there were also more films and movies about the Queen, but the one in 1963 is still the most famous film inspired from Cleopatra. Nevertheless, Cleopatra is also an idea for modern beauty also. There is a style of make up that is strongly inspired by Egyptian beauty of woman, especially by Cleopatra. Here is some examples of it.

A thousands years old beauty seems to be new and modern when people creatively get ideas from it. I also got an idea from an illustration of Cleopatra and re-created it based on my feeling about her, and her mystery look related to the feeling about ancient Egypt.

             

                                                                                                         Linh Tran