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The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra

ca. 1745–47
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 643
When the French art patron the abbé de Saint-Non and painter Jean Honoré Fragonard encountered this oil sketch in 1752, they described it as “filled with fire and genius.” With quick, energetic brushwork, Tiepolo distributed color and forms to craft a composition he would then paint at an enormous scale. Collectors and artists at the time appreciated a sketch-like aesthetic that seemed to grant access to the creative process. Two worlds meet here through the Roman general Mark Antony and the Egyptian queen Cleopatra. Black attendants and a turbaned figure signify lands foreign to Tiepolo’s patrons. Yet Cleopatra is imagined without reference to Egyptian culture. She has been given European features and dress that would have been popular in seventeenth-century Italy.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra
  • Artist: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (Italian, Venice 1696–1770 Madrid)
  • Date: ca. 1745–47
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 18 1/4 × 26 1/4 in. (46.4 × 66.7 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Bequest of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman in honor of Hélène David-Weill, 2019
  • Object Number: 2019.141.18
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

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Allegory of the Planets and Continents, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Italian, Oil on canvas
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The Afternoon Meal (La Merienda)
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ca. 1772
Bacchus and Ariadne, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Italian, Pen and brown ink, brown wash, over black chalk.
Bacchus and Ariadne
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ca. 1740
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