''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 Alexandre Cabanel (; 28 September 1823 – 23 January 1889) was a French painter. He painted historical, classical and religious subjects in the academic style. He was also well known as a portrait painter. According to ''Diccionario Enciclopedi ...

. It is held by the

Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp ( Dutch: ''Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen'', ''KMSKA'') is a museum in Antwerp, Belgium, founded in 1810, that houses a collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings from the fourteenth ...

. It shows

Cleopatra VII Cleopatra VII Philopator ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ}, "Cleopatra the father-beloved"; 69 BC10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler.She was also a ...

reclining on a banquette and observing the effects of poisons on prisoners condemned to death, as described in

Mark Antony Marcus Antonius (14 January 1 August 30 BC), commonly known in English as Mark Antony, was a Roman politician and general who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the au ...

's ''

Plutarch's Lives Plutarch's ''Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans'', commonly called ''Parallel Lives'' or ''Plutarch's Lives'', is a series of 48 biographies of famous men, arranged in pairs to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings, probably writt ...

''. It is considered a canonical work of 19th-century orientalism and has been used as a model for plays and early films. Cabanel had always had a taste for historical and orientalist themes and when the painting was first seen by the Parisian public he was fêted by the critics and showered with honours. Several international collectors attempted to buy the painting.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Condemned Prisoners 1887 paintings Paintings in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp Paintings depicting Cleopatra Deaths by poisoning Paintings by Alexandre Cabanel Paintings based on works by Plutarch Paintings about death Cats in art