So let's hop right in to sex in the canvas.

Here we are at the National Gallery of Victoria in

Melbourne, Australia, in one of its most magnificent galleries. We're going to begin with Tiepolo's
Banquet of Cleopatra, of 1744. It's one of the most beautiful works in the Melbourne collection. Set
in the Palace of the Pharaohs in Alexandria in around 140 B.C., Tiepolo completed his magnificent
picture much later in his studio in Venice in 1744. How did the Egyptian queen conquer
Rome? What was Cleopatra's place in the literature and out of the ancient world?
Before we hear about the real Cleopatra and her role in the ancient world from specialist on gender
and sexuality in the ancient world Dr. James Kim Chong-Gossard. Let's look at Tiepolo's painting
of The Banquet of Cleopatra step by step.
Why did Tiepolo choose this moment in Cleopatra's life as a subject for his painting, and how did
he use it to celebrate her regency? This painting, as Jamie Anderson tells us, in her study entitled,
Tiepolo's Cleopatra is about a competition that Cleopatra made with her husband, Marc Antony. I'm
indebted to Anderson's formal analysis of the painting, and will call upon it in the early part of this
tutorial. The competition centered on a bet about who was the most extravagant, and therefore the
most powerful regent in Rome of the day. Cleopatra wagered that she could spend the equivalent of
80,000 pounds of gold on one feast. After everyone had eaten the meal to further emphasize the
control she exercised over the resources of empire.
Cleopatra took off one of the pearls she was wearing, said to be the most expensive in the world,
which he then dissolved in the wine in her glass. Some say it was vinegar, and then she drank
it. That moment is the subject of the painting as we see Cleopatra located in the center of the
composition occupying the vanishing point.
A device used by painters from the Renaissance on wood to create perspective, and to direct the
attention of the viewer to the central features of a composition
and to the dramatic conclusion of the narrative.
The story of the dissolving of the pearl appears in Pliny the Elder and his natural history, as an
example of the vice of luxury. The use of perspective is heightened through the placement of the
squares on the marble pavement, drawing our eye into the composition. The arch located behind
Cleopatra draws attention to the pearl in her fingers.
Each of the protagonists are accompanied by gender specific canines. Cleopatra has her lap dog,
while Antony, his brilliantly painted greyhound. Cleopatra in concentrating on the task at
hand, focuses intently upon dissolving the pearl in her glass.
In this way Tiepolo puts us in her thrall and at the same time demonstrates how Cleopatra
subjugated Rome to her will and to her beauty. But how does he achieve this? An important device
that Tiepolo uses to allow his image of Cleopatra to seduce the viewer is to represent her as a
beautiful woman with blonde hair and blue eyes. There are varying accounts of Cleopatra's true
coloring. But it is likely that in this instance, Tiepolo used that of his model, who appears in many
of his pictures. And who Janey Anderson suggests may have been his wife or one of his
daughters. She certainly does not resemble Cleopatra's image on ancient coins.
Another way that Tiepolo enhanced Cleopatra's agency is through the representation of her
costume.
Her dress and jewelry are nothing short of magnificent. Her frock made of gold and silk is covered
with small pearls and falls elegantly over her body while a ruffle frames her neckline. The brooch in
the center of her bodice shows a classical female figure. And Cleopatra is covered with pearls from
head to foot. The Sphinx is dotted throughout the composition, as Janey Anderson points out, marks
the city as Egyptian.
The many attendants that surround her further emphasize her power. They are dressed in a gorgeous
array of silks and satins.
And the two Africans add a multicultural dimension to the composition. As well as using a
vanishing point to direct attention to Cleopatra, Tiepolo enhances her power within the composition
by minimizing the impact of her husband, Marc Antony.
Cleopatra addresses us, with her face directed towards us, while we see Antony only at an oblique
angle to the picture plane. He has his back to the viewer as he looks at Cleopatra. We see his
powerful body dressed military attire complete with a brass helmet. But we do not see the full range
of his facial features. And we're not as a result able to gauge his reaction to Cleo's acts of
extravagance.
And through which she asserts her agency.
Finally it's through the elegant surroundings of the palace of the pharaohs that Cleopatra's' agency is
made complete. The famous palace in Alexandria is widely discussed in ancient literature.
But no representation survives by the mosaics St.Marks in Venice. The architecture of Cleopatra's
palace in Alexandria appears in the writings of Luken in which an account of the face in which
Cleopatra seduced her lover is presented. Many of the details of Tiepolo's banquet are afflicted in
Luken. Such as the age and race of the attendants. Even the figures in the background, who observe
the banquet from on high, serve to emphasize her agency. A crowd of musicians who watch the
banquet from above, comment on the scene below. And in the upper left corner, a man points at
Cleopatra, drawing more attention to the scene in front of us. The opulence of the setting, the richly
attired servants, the magnificent architecture, and the attention of onlookers all conspire to bring
Cleopatra's power to the fore.

Hi my name is K.O. Chong-Gossard, and I teach ancient Greek and Latin at the University of
Melbourne. Now what can we say about the real Cleopatra? Well Cleopatra, who we now call
Cleopatra VII,
from the moment she was born in 69 BCE, would have known she was royalty. Her father was King
Ptolemy the XII, who was the latest in the line of Greek monarchs who had ruled over the
Egyptians for about 250 years since the death of Alexander the Great. But even though the dynasty
of the Ptolemies were Greek, they very much stylised themselves as rulers of the Egyptians. So they
not only fashioned themselves as pharaohs and encouraged themselves to be worshiped as gods
while they were alive, and depicted themselves in their iconography in traditional ancient Egyptian
garb, they also practiced Egyptian marriage customs, which included brothers and sisters marrying
each other and having children. So, Cleopatra herself, her parents were most likely half-brother
and half-sister, or perhaps uncle and niece. We're not quite sure, but what we can say is that
Cleopatra came from a big family. She had at least one, probably two older sisters. She had a
younger half-sister and two younger half-brothers, both of whom she ended up marrying, which I'll
tell you about in a moment.
Now when Cleopatra was alive, it's important for you to note that Rome, to the West, was gobbling
up all of the Greek ruled kingdoms, the so called Hellenistic kingdoms that were the successor
states to the conquest of Alexander the Great. So for example, mainland Greece itself was
conquered and made into a Roman province about 80 years before Cleopatra was born. Syria to the
north of Egypt was conquered when she was about six years old. And the island of Cyprus was
conquered when she was about 11. And her father, Ptolemy the XII, tried in various ways to make
himself friends with the Romans. In particular, to one of the Roman triumvirs, Pompey the Great,
with various degrees of success. But so, it's important to note that there were probably plans among
the leaders of the Romans to conquer Egypt at some point, and take it over. It seemed like Egypt
was the last of the Greek kingdoms that was just waiting to be taken.
Well, Cleopatra herself became queen of Egypt when she was 18 years old, when her father died,
and named her his successor in his will. And he actually asked the Romans to be executors of his
will. So, Pompey the Great was actually kind of the one who ensured that she became queen.
And she was required to marry her half-brother Ptolemy the XIII, who at that time was ten.
Now, they ruled jointly, officially, for a while, but Cleopatra, perhaps quite rightly, decided that she
was better off ruling by herself. Now, it's important to know that Cleopatra was nominated as her
father's successor because she, at that time, was the oldest of his children.
Her older sister number one, I think had been poisoned by sister number two. And then sister
number two had been executed by her own father. I mean, these things happen in the best of
families. But what happened was, Cleopatra decided to drop her brother's name out of all the
official documents of their joint rule. Well, this made the people at the court of Alexandria, the
capital of Egypt, very upset, because they did not like the idea of a queen ruling by herself. So at the
time when Ptolemy got to be 13 years old, his courtiers lead a revolution against Cleopatra, and
booted her out.
Well, no sooner had they done that, then who should show up on the banks of the Nile, but Pompey
the Great, who was fleeing from a battle he had just lost with his fellow triumvir and father-in-law,
Julius Caesar. And Pompey took refuge with Ptolemy XIII thinking, oh well, this is the son of the
man who I used to help out. Well, unfortunately, Ptolemy XIII's henchmen killed Pompey as a kind
of gift for Julius Caesar to make Julius Caesar happier when he arrived victorious in
Alexandria. And at that point, it seemed pretty clear that Julius Caesar was ready to take Egypt
over. But Cleopatra had other ideas. She smuggled herself into the palace of Alexandria, her own
palace which Julius Caesar was now in. Some say rolled up in a carpet, some say rolled up in some
bedsheets, and she appeared to him and begged him to take pity her and restore her as queen of
Egypt. This scene is famously narrated in the Roman poet, Lucan's epic called the Pharsalia. It was
written about 100 years after the event, where he describes Cleopatra as the disgrace of Egypt and
using all her seductive wiles on Julius Caesar. And managing him to get him to promise to restore
her with the bribe of what Lucan calls an infamous night together.
So they have their infamous night together. And then a rather complicated war took place in which
Ptolemy XIII got into cahoots with the other half-sister to try to defeat Cleopatra. But it all went
wrong. Ptolemy XIII drowned in the Nile. And Cleopatra was once again restored as Queen of
Egypt by Julius Caesar. At which point, Cleopatra married her other younger half-brother Ptolemy
XIV, who was now 12. But it was at this point that history took an interesting turn. Cleopatra
discovered she was pregnant with Julius Caesar's baby. And she gave birth to us son, whom they
nicknamed Caesarion, which means little Caesar.
At that point, she unabashedly became his mistress. And in fact, she and her brother/husband would
visit Rome on occasions for state business. But it was pretty clear to everyone that she was Julius
Caesar's lover. In fact, he adored her so much that he even made a a gold statue of her in the guise
of the goddess Isis, which of course is her role religiously as the Pharaoh of Egypt.
And put it up in the temple of Venus in the forum, sort of the downtown area of Rome, for everyone
to see. So, it was pretty obvious that he was keeping her as his mistress. Now this was a problem
because not only was Cleopatra married to her half brother. But Julius Caesar himself was also
married to his fourth wife Calpurnia, who unfortunately had not been able to produce any children.
Now it seems that Cleopatra met Julius Caesar when she was 21, and he was 52. And they managed
to keep their relationship up for a few years, until as we know, on the Ides of March in 44 BCE,
Julius Caesar was murdered. And it seems that Cleopatra and her son and her husband/brother were
actually in Rome when that happened. At which point Cleopatra took the whole family back to
Egypt and promptly poisoned her younger brother so that she could rule by herself.
A couple years passed and in the power vacuum that existed in Rome, another triumvirate was set
up. And two members of the triumvirate were a man named Octavian, who was Julius Caesar's legal
heir. Julius Caesar was his great uncle. And he adopted Octavian as his son, rather than his
biological son by Cleopatra, that Caesarion. And the other triumvirate was Marcus Antonius, or
Marc Antony, who had been a general commander in Julius Caesar's war against the Gauls.
And basically, Marc Antony was given control of the Eastern provinces, and Octavian of the
Western provinces. And Marc Antony, about the year 41, I think,
commanded Cleopatra to meet with him in Tarsus, which is in modern Turkey, to have a
conversation about what role Egypt was going to have in this new world. In other words, was Egypt
going to be an ally of Rome? And was, in fact, Egypt going to help Marc Antony in his plan
to attack the Parthians, who were to the east of Egypt?
Well, Cleopatra, very cleverly, decided to show up in grande estate, and in such absolute
ostentatious wealth, I mean, throwing rose petals everywhere and all sorts of things, that she
persuaded Antony to come back with her to Alexandria and receive her hospitality, which he did,
and they became lovers. In fact, she bore him twins at the end of the year 40 BCE, a boy and a girl,
whom she named Alexander Helios, which means sun and Cleopatra Selene which means moon. So
she had children, Sun and Moon. I know, it's adorable. Only trouble was Antony wasn't there. He
had already returned back to Rome and had married Octavian's sister Octavia, who ended up
bearing him two daughters. So he didn't actually see Cleopatra or his own children for a couple
more years. And I think it was around 36 BCE, he eventually went back to Egypt, and this time he
stayed. Cleopatra bore him another son, and they even started parceling out the various lands of the
Egyptian empire to their children. And eventually Marc Antony divorced Octavia back in Rome
and married Cleopatra with Egyptian rites. And it's at that period of their lives that Tiepolo's
painting seems to be situated when they're actually married and living in Alexandria and living life
to the fullest.
Now, the story of Cleopatra and her earring of course comes from a sort of encyclopaedia written by
a man named Pliny the Elder writing about 100 years after the event. And he talks basically about
these two giant pearls that were the largest in the world which Cleopatra had inherited from various
of her Greek ancestors. And the point of this story is it's an example of luxuria, that Latin word for
ostentatious wealth, or conspicuous consumption, where you have so much money you don't care
what you waste. And if you have been paying attention to the other parts of this Coursera
video selection, you know the story that she, Cleopatra, makes a bet with her husband that she can
waste an extremely enormous amount of money, 50,000 gold pieces, or whatever, in a single
banquet. And so, Antony takes the bet as she proves this the next day by having a lavish banquet. At
the very end bringing forward a container of vinegar, in Pliny's version, and taking off one of her
pearl earrings, which these giant ones remember, dissolving it in the vinegar and then drinking
it. Now there has been a theory going around for the last 60 years, that pulverised pearls, or
dissolved pearls were used medicinally in antiquity as an antacid. So what Cleopatra is saying is
that she has the world's most expensive alka seltzer hanging from her ear. Now, she was almost
about to do the second one, when one of her slaves who was the judge stopped her and said, no,
no, even just that one pearl makes you win the bet. So it's a wonderful story.
Unfortunately, things didn't work out very well for Antony and Cleopatra. Because of course as
soon as Antony divorced Octavian's sister Octavia, Octavian was very upset and decided that he
was going to start a huge propaganda campaign against Marc Antony. Claiming that he had been
seduced by an eastern queen and he had given away all of these Roman lands to the Egyptian
Queen. And he had written a will saying he wanted to be buried in Alexandria rather than Egypt
when he died. So a battle was inevitable and so in the year 31 BCE a tremendous naval battle
at Actium off the coast of Greece took place. And even though I think everyone agrees Cleopatra
and Antony had the numbers that they should have won, for some reason they didn't, and they fled
to Egypt. Octavian caught up with them about a year later when both Antony and Cleopatra
committed suicide. Cleopatra most famously by after being captured by Octavian smuggling in an
asp or a poisonous snake and enabling it to bite her, so that she, that's the end of Cleopatra. Now the
Romans were not very kind to Cleopatra. They called her all sorts of things. The Roman poet
Horace writing fairly soon after the Battle of Actium called her a fatale monstrum, which means a
fatal monster or a deadly portent. But he also described her suicide in which he describes her as a
non humilis mulier, which is a woman who is not submissive, or not humble. Pliny himself, in that
bit about the pearl, describes Cleopatra as a meretrix, which is latin for a kind of high-class
prostitute. And Lucan, who I mentioned before, describes her as being non casta, which literally
means not chaste. That means something like promiscuous. Well, I think if you look back at her
nowadays, Cleopatra was neither a high class prostitute nor promiscuous. She loved only two men
in her life at different times in her life, and she was faithful to both of them. She gave both of them
children. She was also a queen. She was queen in her own right. And I think this is probably what
bothered the Romans most of all. It's not just that she was woman, but that she was also a
queen. So, she was both politically active, as well as sexually active. Now, I mean, let's think about
it, heads of state. It's one thing for thing for heads of state to get together and have summit meetings
and have trade agreements and make political alliances and be friends with each other.
It's quite another thing for heads of state to sleep with each other, and have children with each
other, especially when both heads of state are married to other people. So this was bothersome to
the Romans. I think that what sets Cleopatra apart is her ability to combine her political agency and
her sexual agency. And I think it's up to us to decide what that all means. Do we look at her as
someone who was very crafty and very
strategic, having a sexual liaison with right man at the right time so that her country did not fall into
the hands of the Romans? In one way you could say that the one man that she wasn't able to
seduce, namely Octavian, did win. He conquered Egypt and made Egypt his own personal province
when he because the Emperor Augustus. But on the other hand, there is something magical about
love. Who know why any two people fall in love with each other? And we can't just lay it on all
Cleopatra. It takes two to tango. Julius Caesar and Marc Antony wouldn't have continued their
relationship with her unless they really truly loved her.
I think that it is interesting that we owe Octavian the role of keeping Cleopatra's memory alive for
the Romans. The one man that she didn't have an affair with was the man who, according to Pliny,
took back to Rome that other pearl that she didn't dip and sliced it in half. And put each half of the
pearl in the ear lobes of the statue of Venus in the centre of Rome, right next to the statue of
Cleopatra herself that Julius Caesar had set up all those years ago. So Octavian made the very
important decision to bring Cleopatra's luxury back to Rome for display, albeit for the glory of
Rome, and for Roman consumption. But I think ultimately it's to him that we owe her
memorialisation.
>> So as can you see, Tiepolo had quite a bit of material to work with when he set about producing
his picture of the banquet of Cleopatra.

Finally, I want to talk about a theme that we'll be going through our course this semester, and that is
what happens when we look at a painting?
Art historians and film theorists have talked about what it means to look for close to half a century
now.
John Berger’s ‘Ways of Seeing’ appeared in 1972. He sets the tone of the new inquiring attitude that
his generation brought to our understanding of how looking at pictures precedes. Berger focused on
how the camera changed the meaning of art and drew attention to the fact that the experience I have
in front of Tiepolo's Cleopatra here in the gallery is a different experience to the one which you
have looking at the painting through the digital revolution of which Coursera is a part.
He pointed out that the context changes the way we look at works of art. For example, music may
change the way we experience a picture.
If we, for example, superimpose a piece of Baroque music over the work of art, we will experience
it differently than if we look at the painting in silence.
John Berger talks at length of what he thinks are the differences in the way men and women look at
a work of art, and especially at a nude.
The nude he suggests implies an awareness of being seen and being looked at, that all women
experience in patriarchal cultures. The woman in nude paintings looks back at us looking at
her. Berger suggests many images of the nude show the woman looking into a mirror,
picturing to herself how men see her.
In the Toilet of Venus by Jean-Baptiste Regnault of 1815, here in the National Gallery of
Victoria, we see Venus located in a luxurious dressing room, perhaps it's a vault, draped with rich
fabric and surrounded by her maidens.
She's preparing herself for our viewing of her.
One of the handmaidens holds a mirror up for her to inspect herself, so that she can be use the
results of the her toilet are as they should be. Two of the handmaidens apply a sash and gold fringe
under her breasts to draw the viewer's attention to their round and delicate appearance.
One adjusts the sash from the front, gazing intently at the object of her labours, while the other ties
the sash modestly from behind.
Two angels are in attendance. The golden head angel with tight curls in the centre of the
composition, leans in to her body as he looks up at the image of her in the mirror from
below. Seeming to refer to her proportions with his gesture.
The other looks toward the viewer with an expression of mild amusement and appreciation of the
scene, in which he of course is a lucky participant.
Many nudes show the woman looking out of the picture plane, seeking the gaze of the viewer, who
it is implied is a man.
The spectator viewer owner of the work of art is her lover.
Few actually look at the lover represented in a picture, because they do not have the power required
to direct their gaze towards their lover.
In Tiepolo's painting of the banquet of Cleopatra, which is not a nude, of course, we have an
example
of what Berger says is rarely found in the history of art of the pre modern period,
in which a beautiful woman is allowed to look directly at her lover.
Cleopatra does not address us the spectators, but rather Marc Antony himself, with whom she has
just won her bet.
Berger raises another important dimension of the discussion around looking that was developing at
this time.
He says that women are usually passive objects of the gaze, while men are active. They do the
looking.
And when men are the subjects of a work of art, they are often seen in the midst of an activity
rather than represented as inactive, which is usually the case for female subjects.
But Tiepolo here breaks the rules for Cleopatra, whom he depicts in action.
She is about to win her bet with Marc Antony.
Her right hand is poised over her wine glass as she is about to drop the pearl into her wine, where it
will be dissolved before she drinks it, thereby undertaking the last act of luxury that will ensure her
victory.
So, Tiepolo defied the convention of 18th century painting in representing Cleo.
Rather than making her a passive beautiful woman, he represents her as an active beautiful woman.
An active and powerful female regent. We will return to the subject of the gaze next week when we
consider Thomas Gainsborough's Officer of the 4th Regiment of Foot.
One of the many outstanding works in the collections of the National Gallery of Victoria, as well as
magnificent works by Gainsborough in the Huntington Library in California. We will be thinking
about these works through the gendered culture of sensibility that was so much part of the 18th
century.