Cleopatra

Summary of the Painting

My painted scene for the book Cleopatra a Life is a picture of Cleopatra. She is wearing a Greek toga because even though she was the Queen of ancient Egypt she was a Ptolemy, a member of a line of Greeks that ruled Egypt. The toga is covered in ornate gold engravings to show her wealth. Also showing her wealth was her many jewelry items she wore as well as the treasure surrounding her. She was extremely rich and flaunted her opulence openly throughout her life. There is also an asp in the painting. The asp is the animal of Egypt, commonly seen on sarcophaguses of Egyptian kings and queens. The asp was rumored to be Cleopatra’s way of suicide as it would have bitten her and poisoned her. This is not one hundred percent proven, as she may conversely have poisoned herself (Cleopatra was very familiar in the use of poisons, which she had used to poison her enemies). The asp is generally seen as more important as many classical artworks (such as Cleopatra and the Asp by Michel Corneille 1648). She uses commits suicide either via asp or poison because her second lover after the late Julius Ceaser commited suicide. Mark Antony had an army that was defeated in battle, and as his archrival Octavian entered the city of Alexandria he killed himself with his own blade and was brought to Cleopatra. These she distraughtly tore at her breasts and body and ended up also killing herself. This was to avoid being captured by Octavian’s army and was also significant as she was the last Ptolemy to rule Egypt, ended the ancient Egyptian empire. She died in her mausoleum, where Mark Antony was brought to her. Octavian took the city of Alexandria after she was dead, and grew substantially richer as a result. Cleopatra died at the age of 39, after 22 years of being a ruler. I went about creating the painting by first adding Cleopatra’s legs and toga to the canvas. I then drew her hand and added jewelry and decoration to her. I made the asp which is just a type of cobra and painted it orange, similar to the ones in Egypt that would have killed her. I created two bite wounds on her leg where the ash would have bitten her, and from there put venomous lines coming from them. I painted the background as blue because her mausoleum in which she committed suicide would have been a dark place. I also added treasure around her body in the space left to further represent her vast riches that she would be leaving behind as she entered the realm of the dead. This was the climax of the story because it shows mostly her lasting influential legacy and what she was leaving behind and also her defeat and reason for killing herself.

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