The Death of Cleopatra

The Death of Cleopatra - Styles and Influences

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The Death of Cleopatra
Augsburg; ca. 1530

Cleopatra, the Egyptian queen of the Ptolemaic Dynasty, is a frequent subject in art and literature. Her life, and particularly her death, inspired many artists. This statue presents certain elements of the Mannerist figura serpentinata, while some anatomic details lack Mannerist elements, revealing a mature phase in the development of the German Renaissance sculpture. Together with a very similar sculpture of Venus in the Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow, this is one of the more valuable examples of Augsburg sculpture dating from the 1st half of the 16th c.