What did Cleopatra really look like? On the cover is a replica of a painting of Cleopatra, commissioned by Octavian Augustus in 30 B.C. Furious at her suicide, which deprived him of his plans to make her take part in the Roman tradition of parading prisoners in chains through the streets of Rome, Octavian ordered the artist Timomachus to create a new portrait of the Queen at the moment of her death. The portrait, in the encaustic technique, was mounted on a cart and drawn along the victory parade. It was placed in the Temple of Venus, but the Emperor Hadrian acquired it for his extensive art collection that was housed at his villa in Tivoli, outside of Rome. The painting, at some time after Hadrian's death, was place in a wooden crate and hidden in a cellar at Hadrian's Villa. It lay hidden and forgotten until 1818 when it was rediscovered in a lot of scrap lumber. This remarkable book tells the story of the painting and its history in full.
- ISBN10 1471731545
- ISBN13 9781471731549
- Publish Date 4 June 2012 (first published 9 September 2010)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Lulu.com
- Format Paperback
- Pages 70
- Language English