Giovanni Battista Tiepolo - The banquet of Cleopatra

Title: The banquet of Cleopatra
Artist: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696-1770)
Date: 1744
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 250 × 357 cm

“The Banquet of Cleopatra” represents an episode in the love affair between the Roman consul Mark Antony (83–30 BCE) and the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra (69–30 BCE)- Cleopatra bet that she could organize a feast more over-the-top than Mark Antony. Tiepolo showed the dramatic moment at the end of the banquet when Cleopatra won the wager with her trump card- she removed one of her earrings carrying a precious pearl to drop it into a cup of vinegar and drink it once the pearl would be dissolved. But there is no joy in the painting: the main characters look in conflict and the servants and onlookers grouped around the table and standing on the balcony add to the bad vibes of the scene.

The grandeur of the composition was clearly inspired by Venitian Paolo Veronese’s “The Wedding at Cana”. The display of excessive opulence was typically rococo: the variety of food and plates to carry them, the refinement and variety of clothes worn, the wide range of colors used, the details in the architecture and interior design such as the beautifully tiled floor and the collection of characters (people of all stages and wealth, moors, soldiers,a dwarf, a dog, etc).