Romagna -Venice -Vienna, 1601 -1663 · Flesh, ecstasy and baroque drama

Cleopatra looks up as the snake almost disappears behind her hand: Cagnacci suspends the violence to concentrate the entire scene in flesh, breath and abandonment.

Guido Cagnacci was born in Santarcangelo di Romagna in 1601 and died in Vienna in 1663. His art combines Caravaggesque chiaroscuro, the elegance of Guido Reni and a very personal sensuality. The Death of Cleopatra, painted around 1645 -1655 in oil on canvas, measures 95 × 75 cm. The subject comes from the Lives of Plutarch: after the defeat and death of Mark Antony, the Queen of Egypt chose suicide by the bite of a snake. Cagnacci eliminates almost any narrative context. After the defeat and death of Mark Antony, the Queen of Egypt chose suicide by the bite of a snake. Cagnacci eliminates almost any narrative context. The reversed eyes, the colored cheeks and the uncovered breast make the last moment a physical and emotional experience. The snake eliminates almost every narrative context. The reversed eyes, the colored cheeks and the uncovered breast make the last moment a physical and emotional experience. The snake eliminates almost every narrative context. The reversed eyes, the colored cheeks and the uncovered breast make the last moment a physical and emotional experience. The snake wraps itself with improbable elegance around the arm; its fangs and the wound remain hidden behind the placed hand. This restraint paradoxically increases tension. The painting responds to the baroque taste for a Cleopatra who is at once heroic, loving and eroticized, but it is distinguished by the extreme proximity of the body and the ambiguity between agony and ecstasy. The "Guido Cagnacci" selection notably compares The Death of Cleopatra. His reading favors the story.

Cagnacci hides the bite to better show its effects: the drama goes from the snake to the gaze, the skin and the breath of Cleopatra.