Woman's head

The Head of Cleopatra, a drawing by Giambattista Tiepolo, depicts a young woman with an exquisite hairstyle adorned with pearls. The woman looks to the side with some trepidation, as if foreboding the terrible fate that would come with meeting Mark Antony, an ambitious Roman leader and politician eager for power. Cleopatra, the last queen of Hellenistic Egypt (51-30 BC), met Mark Antony, one of the three co-rulers of ancient Rome, the so-called triumvir, during his travels in the eastern state provinces. She became his mistress, and after Antony's unsuccessful war campaigns and political moves, which she financed, they committed suicide. The picture drawn using black and white crayons on blue paper produced in Venice is a sketch of Cleopatra's Head for the fresco Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra, a 1745 wall painting adorning the salon of the Palazzo Labia in Venice. A researcher into the Tiepolo family's works, Georg Knox, has speculated that Anna Maria Tiepolo, one of the artist's daughters, was portrayed in the sketch.

Ewa Gwiazdowska