Word: cleopatra
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Following Octavian's conquest of Egypt, Antony's suicide-by falling on his sword-and then Cleopatra's-perhaps with the help of the asp of legend, if not a cobra-the new emperor ordered that all statues of Cleopatra be destroyed. Most of the surviving images depict a figure with a voluptuous body and a strong face, masculine in its features, emphasizing power. Representations from old coins, particularly rare Greek ones, have helped to identify Cleopatra in marble and limestone sculptures. So, too, did the tiniest item on display-a 1.3-cm blue glass intaglio bearing Cleopatra's profile...
...Cleopatra Selene-Cleopatra's daughter by Mark Antony and the twin of her second son, Alexander Helios-is identified as the subject of a rare marble portrait statue found in Cherchel, Algeria. On loan from that city's Archaeological Museum, the statue has never been outside Algeria before. Cherchel was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Mauretania, restored by Augustus to Cleopatra Selene's husband, Juba II. Another marble rendering of Cleopatra Selene, found near Juba's palace at Cherchel, shows her as a more mature woman, with a heavier face and "snail-shell" curls around her forehead...
...Alexander Helios is believed to be represented, in a bronze statuette, as the Prince of Armenia. According to Plutarch's writings, Mark Antony gave his sons by Cleopatra the title of kings, bestowing Armenia, Media and the Parthian Empire on Alexander and Phoenicia, Syria and Cilicia on his younger brother Ptolemy Philadelphus. After the deaths of Antony and Cleopatra, their three children were made to live out their lives in obscurity. Half-brother Caesarion was not so fortunate. He was executed by Octavian...
...Images of Cleopatra's great loves and political allies, Caesar and Antony, are included in the exhibition, but perhaps more interesting than any sculpted head is a joke in stone dating from 34 B.C. Inscribed in Greek on a basalt statue base found at Alexandria is a reference to "Antony, the Great, lover without peer." The text, says Higgs, contains a pun relating to the "Association of Inimitable Livers," which Plu- tarch wrote was a group established by the high-living Antony and Cleopatra in cosmopolitan Alexandria. Antony the inimitable liver became Antony the inimitable lover, both in the brothels...
...inimitable living and dramatic demise made Egypt's exotic queen an icon-to many, the first female superstar. For several hundred years from the time of Caesar, Cleopatra and all things Egyptian intrigued even those Romans who demonized her, influencing style, customs and culture. By the early Renaissance in Europe, with its revival of interest in classical traditions, Cleopatra again became a subject of art, literature and fashion. Her luxurious banquet for Antony, his death, her grief at his tomb and her own death all are represented in paintings and sketches in the exhibition, as well as on a variety...