Year 1887 Artist Alexandre Cabanel Media Oil paint | Medium oil on canvas Created 1887 Support Canvas | |
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Dimensions 87.6 cm × 148 cm (34.5 in × 58 in) Location Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp Oil paintings The Birth of Venus, The Banquet of Cleopatra, Orestes Pursued by the Furies, The Meeting of Anthony, The Disembarkation of Cleopa | ||
Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Condemned Prisoners (Cléopâtre essayant des poisons sur des condamnés à mort) is an 1887 painting by the French artist Alexandre Cabanel. It is now in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp. It shows Cleopatra VII sitting at a banquet observing the effects of poisons on prisoners condemned to death.
Cabanel had always had a taste for historical and orientalist themes and when the painting was first seen by the Parisian public he was feted by the critics and showered with honours. Several international collectors attempted to buy the painting.
References
Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Condemned Prisoners Wikipedia(Text) CC BY-SA