Death+of+Cleopatra,+The

Date: carved 1876
 * [[image:https://s3.amazonaws.com/saam.media/files/styles/x_large/s3/images/1994/1994.17_1a.jpg?itok=pdRDDMJW width="229" height="304" link="@https://americanart.si.edu/artwork/the-death-of-cleopatra-33878"]] || Title: **The Death of Cleopatra**

Artist: **Edmonia Lewis** Born: Greenbush, New York 1844 Died: London, England 1907

Medium: marble Dimensions: 63 x 31 1/4 x 46 in. (160.0 x 79.4 x 116.8 cm.) Smithsonian American Art Museum Gift of the Historical Society of Forest Park, Illinois

Accession: 1994.17 || Cleopatra (69 - 30 BCE), the legendary queen of Egypt from 51 to 30 BCE, is often best known for her dramatic suicide, allegedly from the fatal bite of a poisonous snake. Here, Edmonia Lewis portrayed Cleopatra in the moment after her death, wearing her royal attire, in majestic repose on a throne. The identical sphinx heads flanking the throne represent the twins she bore with Roman general Marc Antony, while the hieroglyphics on the side have no meaning. Lewis was working at a time when Neoclassicism was a popular artistic style that favored classical, Biblical, or literary themes—thus Cleopatra was a common subject. Unlike her contemporaries who often depicted an idealized Cleopatra merely contemplating suicide, Lewis showed the queen’s death more realistically, after the asp’s venom had taken hold—an attribute viewed as “ghastly” and “absolutely repellant” in its day (William J. Clark,//Great American Sculpture//, 1878). Despite this, the piece was first exhibited to great acclaim at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876 and critics raved that it was the most impressive American sculpture in the show. Not long after its debut, however, //Death of Cleopatra// was presumed lost for almost a century—appearing at a Chicago saloon, marking a horse’s grave at a suburban racetrack, and eventually reappearing at a salvage yard in the 1980s. The Museum has an online exhibit that documents the statue’s storied history and conservation.
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As queen of Egypt from 51 - 30 B.C., Cleopatra VII was an intelligent ruler whose fame came from her political and romantic alliances with the Roman leaders Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony. However, she is best remembered for her legendary final act. Her forces defeated in battle, Cleopatra chose to submit to the deadly bite of an asp rather than humiliation by her enemies.
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Edmonia Lewis apparently began working on the clay model for Cleopatra in 1874 and probably finished it in 1875. From her model, Italian craftsmen began carving the marble, completing it in early 1876. The statue was Lewis's most ambitious undertaking and was intended as proof that her abilities were equal to any other. In portraying the illustrious Cleopatra, Lewis followed the lead of numerous other European sculptors in the nineteenth century.

Her realistic presentation of Cleopatra's death was, however, in direct contrast to sculptures by her peers which idealized the queen's mythical beauty and her thoughtful contemplation of suicide. Lewis seemed concerned with conveying the undeniable majesty of the queen in life and death. Cleopatra sits upon her stately throne, dressed in her royal attire and wearing the crown of Egypt. As with images by other artists of the day, the sculpture is a pastiche of Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and pseudo-Egyptian details; the hieroglyphics are in fact meaningless


 * Suggested Questions: **

Edmonia Lewis Edmonia Lewis in Reading American Art Ask Joan of Art The Decades-Long Quest to Find and Honor Edmonia Lewis’s Grave - Hyperallergic article
 * Resources: **

Artist Biography SAAM Collections Page
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