The Banquet of Cleopatra is a painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo completed in

1744.[1] It is now in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia.[2]

[3] This is the first of three large paintings of the subject by Tiepolo. In
addition to these, the much smaller oil studies or modelli for each of the larger
paintings survive.[4]

Tiepolo's fresco version for the ballroom of the Palazzo Labia, Venice (slightly
trimmed)
Tiepolo returned to the subject a few years later at the Palazzo Labia in Venice
with his frescoes on the theme of Mark Antony and Cleopatra: the Banquet was paired
with a Meeting of Cleopatra and Mark Antony and surrounding scenes of gods and
attendants. Two further large canvases by Tiepolo of these scenes are in the
Arkhangelskoye Palace near Moscow (1747; 338 × 600 cm).[5]

Tiepolo typically made oil sketch modelli with varying degrees of finish to show
his composition and, perhaps, submit it for approval to the client. The modello for
the Melbourne painting is in the Musée Cognacq-Jay in Paris, and was owned by Count
Francesco Algarotti until his death.[6][7] There is a small (46.3 by 66.7
centimetres (18.2 in × 26.3 in)) oil sketch by Tiepolo in the National Gallery,
London, which may relate to the painting in the Palazzo Labia,[8] although it
differs considerably from that work; it is more usually regarded as a study for the
Archangelskoye painting. There is another small work in oils in the collection of
Stockholm University in Sweden, a modello for the Palazzo Labia composition, and
there are a number of preparatory drawings in various collections.[9]

Composition
All three large paintings show the banquet taking place in the open air or in a
loggia with a grand architectural setting but with the sky visible, and include a
raised terrace closing off the back of the pictorial space. In the Palazzo Labia
and Arkhangelskoye paintings (and the Paris and London modelli) there are steps in
the foreground leading up to the dining table; although the Melbourne painting
lacks these steps, the pattern of the marble floor gives a similar visual effect.
Only the two or three main figures are seated, but various attendants stand around
them. All the compositions show a clear debt to Paolo Veronese's grandly theatrical
feast paintings of nearly a century earlier, such as The Wedding at Cana (1563,
Louvre) and The Feast in the House of Levi (1573, Accademia, Venice). Venetian
taste approved of such explicit reference to the city's artistic tradition.[4] In
the Palazzo Labia the frescoes were designed in conjunction with a scheme of
trompe-l'œil architecture by Gerolamo Mengozzi Colonna embracing the whole space.
The frescoes come almost down to the floor, so that the steps bring the main scene
up to a height where they could be seen across a crowded room.[10]

The subject of the Banquet paintings is a supposed historical episode described by

both Pliny's Natural History (9.58.119–121) and Plutarch's Lives (Antony 25.36.1),
in which Cleopatra takes an expensive pearl and dissolves it in her wine, prior to
imbibing the drink.[11] The episode depicts the spartan Roman warrior represented
by Antony being seduced by the sensual opulence of the East, as exemplified by
Cleopatra. The wealth of the scene is compounded by the presence of black servants,
often held as slaves in Venice. With respect to the Labia frescoes, it is not clear
if this family, newly inducted into the patriciate, would have been attempting
through this fresco, not only to display their ability to employ one of the best
local artists, but also to remind visitors of the Labia's wealth, and specifically
the palazzo's owner, Maria Labia's jewelry collection. It is also not clear whether
the fresco is a distant allegory of the movement eastward of the Labia family,
originally from Spain,[12] to this mainly Levantine republic.

Provenance
The Melbourne painting was commissioned for Frederick Augustus III, Elector of
Saxony, by his agent Francesco Algarotti.[13] According to a letter of 1744 from
Algarotti to Heinrich von Brühl (1700–1763), the Saxon chief minister, he saw it
unfinished in Tiepolo's studio, where it had been commissioned by someone else, and
persuaded Tiepolo to finish it for Dresden.[14] It has been speculated that the
original commissioner was the English "Consul Smith".[6]

It was acquired in 1764 by Catherine the Great in Amsterdam.[1][15] The work

remained in the collection of the Hermitage Museum in what was then Saint
Petersburg and later became Leningrad. It was part of the Soviet sale of Hermitage
paintings, and was purchased by an English art dealer in 1932.[16] It was purchased
by the National Gallery of Victoria in 1933 for A£25,000;[1][2] according to some
accounts the National Gallery in London wanted the painting, but stood aside to
allow Melbourne to improve their collection.[citation needed]