Getty Museum
The Tomb of Marc Antony and Cleopatra
Creator
Boucicaut MasterFrench Illuminator · 1390–1430
All works by this person →In the early 1400s, the Boucicaut Master was the leading master of manuscript illumination in Paris and one of the most influential artists working in the International style in northern Europe. The Boucicaut Master appears to have supervised a talented team of artists who produced manuscripts commissioned by the king of France, high-ranking aristocrats, and the wealthy bourgeoisie. He probably al
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1413–1415
- Medium
- Tempera colors, gold leaf, gold paint, and ink
- Culture
- French
- Department
- Manuscripts
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Two men stand before the tomb of Marc Antony and Cleopatra, whose suicides ended a Roman civil war. After the death of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C., control of the Roman state was divided between his heirs Octavian and Marc Antony, sparking a Roman civil war. Antony allied himself with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra against Octavian. After their horrendous defeat at Actium in 31 B.C., Cleopatra and Antony fled to Egypt, where they both committed suicide, he with a sword, she with poisonous snakes. According to Boccaccio, Octavian had their tombs placed side by side. The Boucicaut Master recreated their tombs as a single structure in the European Gothic style, rather than as Egyptian monuments. The effigies display the implements of their deaths, the sword and the snake.
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