Nicolas Pierre Loir (Paris, 1624-ibid., 1679), attr., Cleopatra submits to the bite of the asp

Nicolas Pierre Loir (Paris, 1624-ibid., 1679), attr.

Cleopatra submits to the bite of the asp

Oil on canvas, 124 x 172 cm

With frame, 140,5 x 188 cm

An honorable death, that of Cleopatra, who did not wait for the disastrous results of the civil war into which Mark Antony dragged Ptolemaic Egypt. In the present painting the asp is duplicated, dying on one side in the queen's blood and held, on the other, in the hands of an incredulous putto-helper, heir to the classical iconographic tradition. The golden sculpture behind the bed representing a mermaid with her arm-wing raised above her head can also be traced back to the same context, to which we must also refer the pose of Cleopatra, borrowed from the type of the sleeping Ariadne for which it is possible to recognize a realistic prototype in the sculpture housed in the Vatican since 1779. Acquired in 1512 by Pope Julius II for the Belvedere Statue Courtyard, Cleopatra herself had been erroneously identified in this work due to a snake bracelet. Correctly recognized as the Cretan girl by Ennio Quirino Visconti, the Ariadne was in later times universally admired by the artists intent on participating in the Grand Tour. Among these, Nicolas Pierre Loir, to whom the present painting can be traced back and who came into contact with the pontifical artistic collections. 

Coming from a family of goldsmiths, Nicolas Pierre Loir had notable masters from the beginning, such as Sébastien Bourdon and Simon Vouet. The inevitable Italian stay fell between 1647 and 1649, thanks to the direct interest of the embassy secretary André Félibien. The meeting with the knight collector and traveler Cassiano dal Pozzo, a Roman by adoption in the papal retinue, who opened his collection to the eager eye of Loir, led to the discovery of the works of Nicolas Poussin, abundant in Cassiano's cabinet. Loir was then convinced of the need for an Italianizing landscape thrust for his paintings, also taking advantage of the compositional suggestions of Gaspard Dughet, who was already in close connection with Poussin due to family affairs. Returning to his homeland in 1650, Nicolas Pierre actively dedicated himself to the Company of Goldsmiths and, consequently, to the so-called minor arts for the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Having passed to private commission with Henri du Plessis-Guénégaud and his castle in the surroundings of Villeroy, the artist continued his commitments as professor first and then rector of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture of the capital (1663), thanks in support of Charles Le Brun and King Louis XIV himself, painting a series of seven canvases in the apartment of Queen Maria Theresa of Austria. Having obtained the lifelong support of the royal pension, Loir also had the opportunity to approach the textile art of the Gobelins Manufactory for the castle of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in the Tuileries. Master in turn of François de Troy, who adopted the typical Poussinian blue of his palette, Loir displayed a perfect series of paintings with archaic mythological or historical subjects. From this point of view, the present Cleopatra draws liberally from Loir's classicizing handbook, coming closer due to obvious affinities to other of his autograph paintings such as the Allegory of the foundation of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture (Versailles, châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon), Pithopolis serves gold dishes to King Pithès (Bourg-en-Bresse, Musée de Brou) and The Queen addresses the soldiers (Paris, Louvre Museum).

The object is in good condition

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