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Secondary sourcePaintingc. 1750

Three Women Presenting Gifts of Marc Anthony to Cleopatra

Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo · c. 1750

An 18th-century etching by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo showing women presenting Antony's gifts to Cleopatra, an imagined scene made centuries after her death.

An imagined 18th-century scene showing Cleopatra receiving gifts, reflecting her later legendary image rather than historical fact.

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Etching showing three women presenting gifts of Marc Antony to a seated Cleopatra.
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Three Women Presenting Gifts of Marc Anthony to Cleopatra, c. 1750. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

About this source

What it is

This is an etching made around 1750 by the Italian artist Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo. It shows a scene of three women presenting gifts from Marc Antony to Cleopatra. It is held today by The Cleveland Museum of Art.

Why it matters

This print was made nearly 1,800 years after Cleopatra's lifetime. It is not a record of a real event but part of a long European tradition of imagining her story through art. It tells us more about what 18th-century artists like Tiepolo thought was romantic and dramatic about Cleopatra and Antony than about Cleopatra herself.

Look closer

  • What details in the scene seem invented rather than historical?
  • Why might artists centuries later still be fascinated by Cleopatra and Antony's story?
  • What does this image leave out about Cleopatra as a real ruler?

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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Primary source

Portrait of Cleopatra (Berlin Bust)

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