Follower of Giambattista Tiepolo, 18th century, Cleopatra's Banquet

Follower of Giambattista Tiepolo, 18th century

Cleopatra's Banquet

Oil on canvas, 48 x 40 cm – With frame, 67 x 59 cm

The theme of Cleopatra's Banquet represents one of the peaks of the production of Giambattista Tiepolo (Venice, 1696 – Madrid, 1770), a subject that the Venetian artist addressed repeatedly, transforming it into a manifesto of late Baroque and Rococo painting. The story is inspired by the famous episode described by Pliny the Elder, in which the queen of Egypt, to demonstrate her immense wealth to Mark Antony, dissolves a very rare pearl in a goblet of vinegar and then drinks it. Tiepolo uses this historical pretext to stage a theatre of pomp, classicising architecture and sumptuous costumes that evoke the Venice of his time more than ancient Egypt. The first significant version dates back to the 1740s, with the large oil on canvas now preserved in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne (1743-44). In this work, Tiepolo defines the compositional structure that will become canonical: Cleopatra and Mark Antony sit opposite each other, separated by a laid table, while the monumental architecture in the background, characterised by loggias and Corinthian columns, gives a solemn and almost theatrical tone to the event. The clear light and brilliant palette emphasize the dramatic gesture of the queen holding the pearl suspended above the chalice. Shortly after, Tiepolo created a second version, now in the Cognacq-Jay Museum in Paris, smaller in size and with a more intimate atmosphere, almost a preparatory sketch or a variant for a private collector. However, the pinnacle of this iconographic research is represented by the spectacular fresco in Palazzo Labia in Venice (1746-47), the model of which is taken from the canvas presented here, most likely painted by a follower of the master who had had the opportunity to see it in person. Here, the banquet scene is inserted into a complex system of architectural quadratures created by Gerolamo Mengozzi Colonna. Cleopatra takes on the guise of an 18th-century Venetian noblewoman, and the integration between the painting and the real space of the salon transforms the observer into an eyewitness to the banquet. The influence of these compositions was immense among his followers, who spread the model throughout Europe, taking up above all Tiepolo's ability to organize large masses of figures in open spaces, imitating Tiepolo's scenographic “grand goût” which combined Palladian-derived architectural precision with an unprecedented chromatic freedom. The painting in question captures the essence of the monumental Venetian fresco, transposing its theatricality into a more intimate dimension, almost as if it were a small model, but with an equally vibrant character. While in Palazzo Labia Colonna's quadratures integrate the fresco into the real space of the room, here the artist reproduces those same fake architectures within the confines of the canvas, creating a sort of "picture within a picture" that emulates the original perspective effect. The brushstroke here appears rapid, loose and luminous, typical of Tiepolo's maturity, who spread the colour with a freedom that anticipated the new modern taste.

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