Title: The Banquet of Cleopatra
Description: The Banquet of Cleopatra is a painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo completed in 1744. It is now in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. The work depicts the culmination of a wager between Cleopatra and Mark Antony as to which one could provide the most expensive feast. As recounted in Pliny the Elder's Natural History she wins the wager: after Mark Antony's feast, Cleopatra drops a rare and precious pearl from her earring into a cup of vinegar and drinks it once the pearl has dissolved. The third person at the table is Lucius Munatius Plancus, at the time Antony's ally, who was to decide the winner of the wager. This is the first of three large paintings of the subject done by Tiepolo. In addition the much smaller oil studies or modelli for each survive.
Author(s): Giovanni Battista Tiepolo