Cleopatra, 1890-1900
Cleopatra VII (69-30 BC) was the famous Egyptian Queen and the last pharaoh of Ancient Egypt. Cleopatra aligned herself with Julius Caesar to regain the throne. After Caesar’s murder, she became Mark Antony’s lover.
On 1 August 30BC Mark Antony committed suicide following the defeat of his army by Octavian, and Cleopatra later committed suicide too as she had no intentions of being paraded in a Roman triumph like her sister Arsinoe IV. According to popular belief, she committed suicide from the fatal bite of an asp (Egyptian cobra), as seen by the snake wrapped around her arm ready to strike. Later accounts have challenged this story declaring that the Queen died from drinking a mixture of poisons. Her death marked the end of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt – and Egypt became absorbed into the Roman Empire.
Lombardi was a sculptor from Milan and exhibited in a number of European cities.
