Posted on 04/14/2004 5:07:49 PM PDT by blam
Expert: Cleopatra Seduces Antony on Vase
By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News
Cleopatra Seducing Antony?
April 13, 2004 — The epic romance between Egyptian queen Cleopatra and the Roman general Marc Antony was immortalized on a Roman vase that is now housed at the British Museum, according to an expert in classical art.
Susan Walker, former deputy keeper of Greek and Roman antiquities at the British Museum who is now the head of a similar department at the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, believes the Portland Vase shows Cleopatra seducing Antony, while cupid and Anton, the son of Greek mythological hero Hercules, look on. Marc Antony's family claimed they had descended from Anton.
"Of the various female seducers of antiquity (e.g.Helen, Semiramis, Omphale, Dido), Cleopatra best fits the vase because every figure on it and the relationships between the figures can be explained in a logical way which permits both the flow of the narrative and balance within the design," Walker told Discovery News.
If Walker's theory is correct, the vase adds to only a handful of known images of Cleopatra from the ancient world. According to Lisa Schwappach-Shirriff, curator of the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum in San Jose, Calif., there are seven identified statues of Cleopatra. All were made of stone, not glass.
During a lecture last month at the British Museum, Walker stated her belief that the vase shows "Antony's last chance to recapture his Roman identity," before the charms of the seductive Egyptian queen proved too irresistible for him.
After their defeat at the Battle of Actium, Antony joined Cleopatra in Alexandria, where he heard false reports concerning her death. Antony committed suicide and, according to legend, Cleopatra later did the same by inflicting herself with a snakebite. A snake is shown near the female figure on the vase.
The British Museum calls the Portland Vase "the most famous cameo-glass vessel from antiquity."
To create the cameo design, a glassblower dipped a dark glass bubble into molten white glass that, when cooled, was chipped away to form the figures.
Because of its construction, the vase has been difficult to date. Carbon dating does not usually work on glass because this process requires that the object be made of either animal or plant materials. Luminescence dating also has been unsuccessful, as this technique only is reliable for objects that were heated to at least 662 degrees Fahrenheit, and where soil from the same heating also is present for comparison. Other methods would require samples, which could damage the vase.
The subject matter depicted on the Portland Vase also has puzzled experts over the years. The object's exact origins remain unknown, as the vase first was recorded in 1601 when it was owned by an Italian cardinal. Margaret, dowager Duchess of Portland, eventually purchased the vase in 1784. The fourth Duke of Portland donated it in 1810 to the British Museum, where it has remained ever since.
In August 2003, Jerome Eisenberg, editor of the art and archaeology magazine Minerva, announced that the vase was made during the 16th century. Eisenberg believes the images on the vase appear to be more Renaissance than Roman in style.
Schwappach-Shirriff supports the British Museum's date for the vase.
"Roman cameo glass was only popular for two brief periods, from 27 B.C.-68 A.D., and a little bit in the fourth century, and they were so expensive that they were a sweet luxury item," Schwappach-Shirriff told Discovery News. "When you consider the number of items made and then the odds of them surviving in the archaeological record, it's astronomical. Considering that, there was a cameo glass pane found at Pompeii in the house of F. Rufus that pops to mind, that has some similarities and it is ancient."
Schwappach-Shirriff said Walker's theory about the figures on the vase is an "interesting point of view," especially as classical artists did like to hide identifications and word play in their works.
However, because the vase was not properly excavated and documented, she said she could not prove or disprove the new theory.
"I cannot say this is not Antony and Cleopatra, any more than I can say this is not Caesar and Octavia," Schwappach-Shirriff explained. "But I find it very difficult to say that it is."
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