Cleopatra, or the sleeping Ariadne
Italian School
Category
Art / Sculpture
Date
c. 1750 - 1850
Materials
Ivory in gold frame
Measurements
57 x 93 mm
Place of origin
Rome
Order this imageCollection
The Argory, County Armagh
NT 565569
Summary
Sculpture, ivory; Cleopatra; Italian, Rome; c. 1750-1850. An ivory relief depicting the antique marble figure of a reclining woman in the Vatican collections, often identified as the tragic Egyptian queen Cleopatra, but also sometimes as the king’s daughter Ariadne, abandoned by her lover Theseus on the island of Naxos. One of a pair of small ivory reliefs after well-known antique sculptures to be seen in Rome, given by Anne Smyth McGeough Bond (1805–1892) to her son Edward Staples McGeough Bond (1842-1891).
Full description
An ivory relief reproducing the antique statue of a reclining woman, historically identified as the Egyptian queen Cleopatra, or alternatively as the sleeping Ariadne. A heavily draped woman lies upon a rock, her head resting on her curved left arm, her right arm over her head. Around her upper left arm is an armlet in the form of a coiled snake. Set against a white background, and within a gilded wooden frame, with a gilt-bronze crown in the form of a scallop shell. On the backing of the frame, a handwritten inscription recording the gift of the object to Edward Staples Bond (1842-1901) from his mother Anne McGeough Bond (died 1892). The relief is one of a pair of small ivory copies after Roman antiquities given by Mrs McGeough Bond to her son, the other depicting the Apollo Belvedere (NT 565571). The relief is a reduction of a celebrated antique sculpture in the Vatican museums, first recorded in 1512 (Haskell and Penny 1981, no. 24). The sculpture is nowadays thought to be a second-century A.D. Roman copy of a Greek sculpture made around 200-100 B.C. From a very early date it was identified as a depiction of Cleopatra, queen of Egypt (69-30 B.C.), because of the armlet in the form of a serpent that the women wears on her upper left arm. A second well-known version of the sculpture was also in Rome until 1787, at the Villa Medici, before it was transferred to Florence; it is now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in that city. Cleopatra was the last ruler in the Egyptian dynasty of the Ptolemies. Famed for her beauty, she had a love affair with Julius Caesar, with whom she had a son, Caesarion. Cleopatra travelled to Rome with Caesar, returning to Egypt following his assassination in 44 B.C. There she would meet Caesar’s former general and associate Mark Antony with whom she then entered into one of the most famous love affairs in history. After the couple were defeated by Octavian at the Battle of Actium in 31 B.C., Antony eventually killed himself, whilst Cleopatra, rather than being carried a captive to Rome, put an end to her own life using the poison of an asp snake. A small bronze figure of Cleopatra at the Argory (NT 565231) depicts Cleopatra holding the serpent up to her breast. With the end of the Ptolemies, Egypt then became a Roman province. During the Renaissance period, Cleopatra regularly figured in the canon of ‘virtuous women’, figures who also included Dido, Eurydice and Lucretia, all of whom came to a tragic end, usually at their own hands. In the later eighteenth century it was pointed out that the armlet in the form of a snake was a piece of ancient jewellery rather than a real snake, so that the identification as Cleopatra was uncertain; subsequently it was suggested that the figure might in fact be a representation of Ariadne, daughter of King Minos of Crete, who was abandoned by her lover Theseus on the island of Naxos, where she pined until her rescue by Bacchus, god of wine. The sculpture was thus thought to depict Ariadne sleeping. Nowadays there is still no general agreement as to the subject of this beautiful figure, which is unlikely ever to be definitively known. The two reliefs at the Argory are most likely to have been made in Rome, most probably in the early nineteenth century, although it is also possible that it and its companion were made in the eighteenth century, when ivories were made in Rome in larger numbers,largely for sale to Grand Tourists. The best-known carvers of ivories in Rome in the eighteenth century were Giovanni Battista Pozzo (or Pozzi; 1670-1752) and Andrea Pozzi (1718-69). Ivories were quite often signed, but it has not been possible to examine the two ivories at the Argory out of their frames. Very little is known about ivory carvers working in nineteenth-century Rome; Giacomo Marchini di Campertogno (1785-c. 1841) was based in Turin for much of his career, but may also have worked in Rome. Three ivories by him in the Victoria & Albert Museum, two of which are signed and dated 1823, reproduce well-known antiquities or more modern works of art (Trusted 2013, nos. 310-12). The sculpture is one of three small ivory reliefs at the Argory that were acquired by Anne Smyth McGeough Bond (1805–1892), the second wife of Walter McGeough Bond (1790-1866) and given by her at an unknown date to her son Edward Staples McGeough Bond (1842-1891), the gifts being recorded in inscriptions on the backs of each relief. The group includes, as well as the two reproductions of famous antique sculptures to be seen in Rome, an eighteenth-century South German relief depicting Latona and the Fishermen (NT 565570). Edward McGeough Bond was the fifth son of Walter and Anne McGeough Bond; he may be seen at the age of six with his father in the portrait by Hugues Fourau (1803-1873) at the Argory (NT 564842). Edward McGeough Bond subsequently served in the Army, becoming a Captain in the Grenadier Guards. Jeremy Warren December 2022
Provenance
Anne Smyth McGeough Bond (1805–1892); given to her son Edward Staples McGeough Bond (1842-1891); by descent; Walter McGeough Bond (1908-86), by whom given to the National Trust in 1979.
Marks and inscriptions
On back, handwritten inscription: Edward S Bond / from his loving mother / A McG Bond
Makers and roles
Italian School, sculptor
References
Haskell and Penny 1981: Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, Taste and the Antique, The Lure of Classical Sculpture 1500 - 1900, New Haven and London, 1981 Trusted 2013: Marjorie Trusted, Baroque & Later Ivories, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 2013