Week 6: Marie Antoinette. In Art and Popular culture

I have seen my share of American and European films about Marie Antoinette. One of my favourite blogs, Frock Flicks, made the most complete list I have seen of all the movies about the French Queen (view it here). I have decided to feature just a few of the very best actresses who have been lucky enough to portray the fabulous Marie Antoinette (how jealous I am that they got to wear all these sumptuous costumes during filming!)

My favourite portrayal is Kirsten Dunst in Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette, partly because the film is so gorgeous. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it!

Marie Antoinette in Art

It is always interesting to compare actors to actual portraits of the historical figures they are portraying. Marie Antoinette had more than her fair share of portraits painted during her lifetime.

Marie Antoinette with a Rose by Vigée Le Brun

Portrait of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France by Jean-Baptiste Andre Gautier-Dagoty

By Martin Meytens

By unidentified artist

Portrait of Archduchess Marie-Antoinette by Joseph Ducreux, 1769
 

Portrait of the Queen Marie Antoinette by Jean-Baptiste Gautier Dagoty

Marie Antoinette En Chemise, Portrait Of The Queen In A "muslin" Dress, By Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun

Marie Antoinette was and is an enduringly  popular figure among artists and photographers. Although she is certainly seconded by Cleopatra, who has inspired an even more impressive body of paintings and sculptures. You can see Cleopatra's representation in Art on my blog here. Regardless, Marie Antoinette, without a doubt, deserves the status of the most fashionable and glamorous European royalty in history.

Follow Ulia's board Marie Antoinette chic on Pinterest.

Week 3: Cleopatra. Cleopatra in Art

Death Of Cleopatra painting - Achilles Glisenti

For centuries, the history and the myth of Cleopatra has been a great inspiration for artists all around the world. Cleopatra's praised beauty, seductive powers, love affairs with two most powerful men of her time and her tragic, but poetic death has been the theme in the works of generations of creative minds, including Shakespeare, Michelangelo and Salvador Dali.

It is important to note, that aesthetics and the canons of beauty undoubtedly change over time and place. Therefore, Reneissance's Cleopatra and Cleopatra depicted in the Gilded Age Era will be absolutely different, but at the same time the most striking for the audience of the time when the new image was created.

On following paintings, Cleopatra is depicted as a glorious, sometimes ruthless Queen in her prime years. She enjoys the romances with Caesar and Anthony, throwing fabulous feasts and lives a lavish life of the self-proclaimed Goddess.

Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Condemned Prisoners by Alexandre Cabanel
 

Cleopatra Before Caesar by Jean Leon Gerome

Cleopatra's Banquet by Gerard de Lairesse

 Antony and Cleopatra by Lawrence Alma-Tadema

It is interesting that many artists disregard being historically accurate, and depict Cleopatra according to not only beauty standarts of their time, but also fashion styles. For example, on the works of Gerome, Cabanel and others, Cleopatra looks like an exotic oriental nymph. Lawrence Alma-Tadema, on the other hand, waived the oriental look in favour of more historically correct Hellenistic outfit.

It is interesting that many artists of Reneissance and 17th century were more likely to paint Cleopatra as a white skinned beauty with golden locks.

Cleopatra by Mose Bianchi

Cleopatra by John William Waterhouse

Cleopatra by Salvador Dali

But after 19th century, artists started to give a preference to more exotic looking, darker Cleopatra.

The Death of Cleopatra

The death of Cleopatra has inspired more paintings than even her love life and glorious days of the reign. It is believed that Cleopatra has used an asp to kill herself as she did not want to be presented as an Augustus' trophy and be a part of his triumph.

It is documented that the Egyptian Queen has been bitten by a venomous snake in the hand, however Shakespeare in his Anthony and Cleopatra play, wrote that beautiful Cleopatra pressed a snake to her body and let it bite her breast. The sexualised version of Shakespeare has been enthusiastically taken by other creative artists, writers and filmmakers ever since.

The Death Of Cleopatra by German von Bohn

Cleopatra's Last Moments by D. Pauvert
It was previously owned by Michael Jackson

The Death of Cleopatra by Patra Arthur

The Death of Cleopatra by Luca Ferrari

The Death of Cleopatra, Painting by John Maler

Two almost identical paintings of Cleopatra by Benedetto Gennari. One blonde and one brunette Egyptian Queen.

The Death of Cleopatra by Gyula Benczúr.

Probably one of the few paintings that depict Cleopatra as an old, suffering woman. Majority of artists prefer to disregard the fact that Cleopatra was 40 at the time when she committed suicide.

Cleopatra by Rold Armstrong.

During Art Deco, artists exploited the story of Cleopatra and transformed her from an important historical figure to the coquette, lovely seductress and femme fatale of the Gilded Age, Only little symbols and exotic clothing help to identify this new Cleopatra.

Hope you enjoyed the selection of my favourite paintings and sculptures depicting the legendary Egyptian Queen. In the next post you will be able to see celebrities and models of our time channeling their inner Cleopatras on the red carpet and runways. Prepare for the golden fashion galore, and don't forget to check our daily updated Cleopatra Themed Shop.