A Cleopatra by Guido Reni for Lovers of the 20th Century

Guido Reni painted Cleopatra at least seven times, starting in the mid-1620s. From the late 16 th century onwards, the Queen of Egypt, much vilified by Roman authors, was a source of fascination to writers and artists inspired by so-called "strong women". A tragic heroine who committed no crime, Cleopatra took her life not to save her people or expiate their wrongdoing, but to safeguard her political dignity. For love and honor, since she could not take up arms to defend her cause, she refused to contribute to the triumph of Octavian, who would have taken her back to Rome as a captive. This tragic death was also a considerable achievement on the part of a sovereign who marked a resounding victory by refusing to submit. For two decades, Le Guide (as Guido Reni is called by the French) tirelessly reinvented the scene preceding his heroine's suicide. In the painter's post-mortem inventory of October 1642 (Bologna archives), three Cleopatras are mentioned among the hundreds of works present in…