The Meeting of Anthony and Cleopatra
About this artwork
This colourful oil sketch on canvas was made in preparation for Tiepolo's celebrated fresco of the same subject in the Palazzo Labia, Venice. It shows the Roman Commander Mark Anthony greeting Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. The sketch is close in composition and detail to the fresco, although Mark Anthony's passionate pose here is replaced by a more upright stance in the final work. Tiepolo's decorative schemes filled with air and light reflect the influence of the sixteenth-century Venetian painter Veronese. His swift fluent brushwork contributes to the sketch's lively character and illustrates his seemingly effortless virtuosity.
Updated before 2020
-
artist:Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696 - 1770) Italian
-
title:The Meeting of Anthony and Cleopatra
-
date created:About 1747
-
materials:Oil on canvas
-
measurements:66.80 x 38.40 cm; Framed: 84.50 x 56.80 x 7.60 cm
-
object type:
-
credit line:Purchased by the Royal Institution 1845; transferred to the National Gallery of Scotland 1867
-
accession number:NG 91
-
gallery:
-
depicted:
-
subject:
-
artwork photographed by:Antonia Reeve
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
Tiepolo was the outstanding Venetian artist of the eighteenth century. Many of his best works - large, light- filled, colourful and imaginative frescoes, have survived on the walls and ceilings of the villas and palaces for which they were painted. His fluid, rapid style made possible his prolific...