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Secondary sourcePainting1763-1764

The Banquet of Antony and Cleopatra

Jean-Honoré Fragonard after Giovanni Battista Tiepolo · 1763-1764

An 18th-century etching by Fragonard after Tiepolo, showing a banquet scene with Antony and Cleopatra.

A later artistic retelling of the legendary banquet between Cleopatra and Mark Antony.

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Etching of a banquet scene in a classical colonnaded hall. A seated woman in an elaborate headdress reclines at left, with a man standing behind her. On the right, a woman sits at a table with attendants. A child crouches in the foreground. Above, a cloud holds a woman embracing a cherub, with another cherub at right.
Jean-Honoré Fragonard after Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, The Banquet of Antony and Cleopatra, 1763-1764.

About this source

What it is

This etching was made by Jean-Honoré Fragonard after a composition by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, around 1763-1764. It shows a banquet in a classical colonnaded hall, with a seated woman in an elaborate headdress reclining beside a standing man, another woman seated at a table with attendants, and figures in the clouds above.

Why it matters

This image reflects a famous legendary banquet between Cleopatra and the Roman general Mark Antony, a story retold often in art and literature. Made by one artist copying another's design centuries after Cleopatra's lifetime, it shows how her story was passed down and reshaped through generations of European artists.

Look closer

  • What details suggest wealth and luxury in this scene?
  • Why might this legendary banquet have appealed to artists across different centuries?
  • What does copying another artist's composition tell us about how images circulate?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Cleopatra on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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