Tuscan school, late 15th - early 16th century, Cleopatra and the asp

Tuscan school, late 15th - early 16th century Cleopatra and the asp Oil on panel, 32 x 24.5 cm Depicting the Queen of Egypt in the fatal moments preceding her suicide, the panel painting fits forcefully into the fertile furrow of Tuscan painting between the twilight of the Quattrocento and the dawn of the Cinquecento. Cleopatra's figure emerges at the center of the composition with an almost sculptural solemnity, dressed in a tunic belted at the waist, which leaves one breast bare to allow the asp, wrapped around her right arm, to perform the extreme gesture. The sovereign's face, framed by a pink veil that descends from her head to gently wrap around her neck, is turned upwards in an expression of resigned melancholy, while her raised left hand seems to accompany the last breath with a theatrical gesture. In the background, a stylized hilly landscape stretches towards the horizon with some trees and a body of water reflecting the clear light of a serene sky, typical of central Italian settings of the period. The iconography of Cleopatra enjoyed considerable popularity in the Sienese and Florentine areas between the late 15th and early 16th centuries, often being interpreted as an example of heroic virtue and political pride against the Roman oppressor. This popularity is attested by famous versions created by other masters active in the same period, such as that by Domenico Beccafumi preserved in the Chigi Saracini Collection or the version by Girolamo da Benvenuto, now in a private collection. The panel in question reveals the closest affinities precisely with the works of Girolamo da Benvenuto and his father, Benvenuto di Giovanni, exhibiting a stylistic adherence to the manner of Sienese painting of the late 15th century. The rendering of the drapery is characterized by a sharp graphic line, where the fabric frays into rigid folds, defined by decisive shading that gives the volumes a plastic and incisive consistency. These stylistic peculiarities find a direct correspondence in key works such as the Nativity by Benvenuto di Giovanni housed in the Pinacoteca Crociani in Montepulciano, where the hardness of the clothing and the definition of the outlines follow an analogous formal grammar. Similarly, the panel depicting Hercules at the Crossroads by Girolamo da Benvenuto, currently at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, offers a fitting comparison for the facial features and for the particular construction of the landscape, confirming the painting's belonging to a cultural climate that blends the rigor of the late Quattrocento with the new narrative demands of the emerging century.