Cleopatra in Ancient Portraiture (Illustration)

Illustration

by Branko van Oppen
published on 15 February 2020

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Cleopatra in Ancient Portraiture — Ancient portraits of Cleopatra depict her assertive, but certainly not unattractive features. The wide royal headband (diadēma) and traditional wavy coiffure express her sovereignty based on her Lagid descent.

Silver tetradrachm struck in Ascalon, Phoenicia, with the diademed portrait of Queen Cleopatra (British Museum, London, reg.no. 1875,1102.3; seal impression with a similar portrait, Edfu, Upper Egypt (Allard Pierson Museum inv.no. 8177.056); sculptural portrait attributed to Cleopatra (Altes Museum, Antikensammlung Berlin, inv.no. 1976.10); background relief scene depicting Cleopatra and her son Ptolemy Caesarion before the gods of Dendera, Upper Egypt.

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About the Author

Branko van Oppen

Branko van Oppen is an exhibition curator and independent scholar specialized in Ptolemaic queenship as well as Hellenistic art and ideology.

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Uploaded by Branko van Oppen, published on 15 February 2020 under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.

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APA Style

Oppen, B. V. (2020, February 15). Cleopatra in Ancient Portraiture. Ancient History Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.ancient.eu/image/11730/

Chicago Style

Oppen, Branko V. "Cleopatra in Ancient Portraiture." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Last modified February 15, 2020. https://www.ancient.eu/image/11730/.

MLA Style

Oppen, Branko V. "Cleopatra in Ancient Portraiture." Ancient History Encyclopedia. Ancient History Encyclopedia, 15 Feb 2020. Web. 28 Sep 2020.

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