Height: 28.000 cm

Castellani Collection

GR 1879.7-12.15 (Sculpture 1873)

Room 70: Roman Empire

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Cleopatra of Egypt: from history to myth

Limestone head of a woman resembling Cleopatra VII

In July 46 BC Caesar returned to Rome after his successful campaign in Africa. During the triumphal celebrations Cleopatra travelled to the city, seeking a formal treaty of friendship with the Roman people. The queen lived luxuriously as a guest in one of Caesar's villas, an exotic addition to the somewhat conservative life of the republican city. Her notoriety, as Caesar's lover and mother of his infant son, and her public appearances may have influenced women's fashions and hairstyles. Her presence in Rome certainly revived cults of certain Egyptian deities such as Isis, with whom Cleopatra was associated. Caesar also made the controversial gesture of having a golden statue of Cleopatra erected in the Temple of Venus Genetrix, divine founder of his family, in his new forum in the centre of Rome.

Cleopatra's image is well known from coins issued during her life-time, and comparable portraits in stone. This limestone head was once considered to be a portrait, but is now thought to show a woman who modelled herself on Cleopatra, perhaps even one of the entourage who travelled to Rome with her from Egypt. The woman's hairstyle is similar to that of Cleopatra on her coins, but more elaborately dressed in a series of twisted braids that are coiled up at the back. More importantly, the head lacks the royal diadem, a band of cloth tied at the back of the head that had been used to denote royalty since Alexander the Great 300 years earlier.