
by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1744
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo painted this dramatic scene between 1743 and 1744, showing Cleopatra winning her wager with Mark Antony. She removes a pearl earring to dissolve in vinegar and drink, proving she can stage a feast more extravagant than his legendary excesses. Lucius Plancus, umpiring the bet, stops her from destroying the second pearl.
Count Francesco Algarotti purchased the painting directly from Tiepolo's Venice studio for Augustus III, King of Poland. It later entered Catherine the Great's collection before being sold by the Soviet government in 1932. The National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne acquired it the following year.
Tiepolo was the greatest Venetian painter of the 18th century, famous for his luminous frescoes and ceiling decorations. This is the first of three large versions he made of the Cleopatra banquet theme, and preparatory oil sketches for each version survive.
Other masterpieces from the Rococo movement

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, 1767
Wallace Collection, London

Thomas Gainsborough, 1770
The Huntington, San Marino

François Boucher, 1752
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Joshua Reynolds, 1776
National Gallery, London

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, 1770
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Thomas Gainsborough, 1787
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

François Boucher, 1742
Louvre, Paris, Paris

Jean-Antoine Watteau, 1719
Louvre, Paris, Paris
Luxury wall art with the same mood and energy. Gallery-quality canvas, no museum crowds.
Browse Collection