CESARE DANDINI | THE DEATH OF CLEOPATRA

Private collection, southern France. 

S. Bellesi, Pittura e Scultura a Firenze (Secoli XVI-XIX), Florence 2017, pp. 15-16, reproduced fig. 14.

The Florentine artist Cesare Dandini was born into a family of painters and was renowned for his refined and elegant skills. In this highly emotive canvas, he used a rich color palette to capture the dramatic moment of the Death of Cleopatra. This particularly successful for Dandini is known in at least three other versions.¹ It also closely compares to an variant by Dandini showing a full-length Cleopatra in a private collection, Lucca.²

1. Two versions reproduced in S. Bellesi, Cesare Dandini, Turin 1996, pp. 158-159, cat. no. 100-101, reproduced. Another version in S. Bellesi, Studi sulla pittura e sulla scultura de '600='700 e Firenze, Florence 2013, p. 21, reproduced fig. 11 and 22.

2. Oil on canvas, 168 by 129 cm. S. Bellesi, Cesare Dandini, Turin 1996, pp. 156-158, cat. no. 99, reproduced.