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The Death of Cleopatra

ca. 1645–55
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 620
Cagnacci’s erotically charged and emotionally engaging subject appealed to the Baroque imagination in poetry, theater, and painting. Taken from the ancient Greek writer Plutarch’s Lives, Cleopatra commits suicide with a viper bite following the defeat of her beloved, the Roman Mark Antony. Cagnacci’s treatment is indebted to Guido Reni, but the flagrant sensuality of her upturned eyes, flushed cheeks, and exposed breast is singular. The lethal serpent winds with unlikely elegance around her arm, the violence of its fangs hidden behind her gracefully posed hand.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Death of Cleopatra
  • Artist: Guido Cagnacci (Italian, Santarcangelo di Romagna 1601–1663 Vienna)
  • Date: ca. 1645–55
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 37 3/8 × 29 1/2 in. (95 × 75 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Diane Burke Gift, Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, by exchange, Friends of European Paintings Gifts, Gwynne Andrews Fund, Lila Acheson Wallace, Charles and Jessie Price, and Álvaro Saieh Bendeck Gifts, Gift and Bequest of George Blumenthal and Fletcher Fund, by exchange, and Michel David-Weill Gift, 2016
  • Object Number: 2016.63
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

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