The Egyptian Museum of Turin, the Vatican Museums and the Capitoline Museums. The National Roman Museum, the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, the Egyptian Museum of Florence. And again the British Museum in London, the Musée du Louvre in Paris and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The most important museums in the world have joined forces, depriving themselves of prestigious pieces for a few months, to create one of the most evocative and spectacular exhibitions of the year.
The last relevant exhibition dedicated to the Queen of Egypt dates back to 2000, when the Memmo Foundation dedicated a tribute to Cleopatra, registering an absolute record of visitors to Roman exhibitions. Sign of the passion and enthusiasm that Cleopatra is still capable of arousing today. Two thousand years after her death, the charm and charisma of the Egyptian queen remain intact.
The "Cleopatra" exhibition, in addition to recounting her life, for the first time explores the relationship between Cleopatra and Rome, when in her early twenties she conquered first Julius Caesar and then Mark Antony, effectively paving the way for that relationship between power and sex which will repeat itself endlessly in the history of politics around the world.
Curious coincidence (but not too much) the coexistence in the same city and in the same period of the exhibition on Augustus, bitter enemy of Cleopatra. It seems that fate wants them neighbors and enemies for eternity.
Among the 180 masterpieces on display, not to be missed: the so-called "Nahman" portrait of Cleopatra, exhibited in Italy for the first time, an extraordinary portrait of Octavia, wife of M. Antonio and sister of Augustus reworked as Cleopatra - this exhibited for the first time in the world – a portrait of the very young queen of Egypt, probably made when she ascended the throne in 51 BC and also exhibited in its world premiere, the Alexander the Great “Guimet” of the Louvre Museum, a masterpiece of Hellenistic sculpture , an extraordinary unpublished bronze portraying Alessandro Sole, son of Cleopatra and Marco Antonio, and the spectacular but almost unknown mosaic of the Nile, from the Museum of Priverno.
Finally, two gifts for visitors: Valerio Massimo Manfredi, internationally renowned archaeologist and writer, will tell the story of Cleopatra revealing her secrets, and the audio guide of the exhibition will be given free to everyone.
The exhibition itinerary is divided into nine sections: Cleopatra. The Last Queen of Egypt; The land of the Nile; The Hellenistic rulers; The Gods and the Sacred in Ptolemaic Egypt; The arts; The protagonists, the events; Cleopatra and Rome. Egyptmania; New cults in Rome; Rome conquered: the new pharaohs.
In the first room, opening the itinerary, is the magnificent portrait head of a Ptolemaic queen, probably Cleopatra herself, dated to the second half of the 55st century BC and coming from the Capitoline Museums in Rome. After which we will continue with a highly suggestive section, dedicated to the fascinating river environment of the Nile, which will leave not only adults, but also children, speechless: rare and very fine mosaics and ancient fresco pictorial passages show an extraordinary population of aquatic – including hippos, crocodiles, frogs, wild ducks and ibises, along with lotus flowers, papyrus bushes and fish of all kinds – describing the incredible fertility of that river, unique in its kind. Various works bear witness to the strong ascendancy that the "exotic" world of the banks of the Nile has in the Roman imagination, such as the fresco from Pompeii with the Nilotic scene with pygmy hunters (79-XNUMX AD, National Archaeological Museum of Naples), where an impossible battle between the little pygmies, crocodiles and hippopotamuses, a typical subject of Alexandrian inspiration very dear to the art of the city.
Also on display are those who made Egypt great, starting with Alexander the Great (Idealized head of Alexander the Great, known as Alexander Guimet, early 300nd century BC, Musée du Louvre), founder of Alexandria, the grandiose and extraordinarily beautiful city built by Macedonian leader and erected as the capital of the new kingdom of Egypt. The faces of some of his successors, the Ptolemaic rulers – also called Lagidi from the name of the first of them, Ptolemy Lake – who ruled it for XNUMX years, crown the amazing marble icon of the great founder.
The next stage of the exhibition is dedicated to the city and especially to the multicultural community that lives there and that makes it the liveliest center in the Mediterranean at the time. Ancient Egyptian and Greek gods and even new deities populate the sky and the underworld of Ptolemaic Egypt, in an infinite variety of ways and forms of which the exhibition displays beautiful works: statues, papyri, sarcophagi, masks, objects for worship, all made of precious materials that the desert environment has preserved to perfection. And this also serves to better understand the uniqueness of the culture of which Cleopatra, a cultured queen like very few others in history, is the daughter and last exponent.
A section follows which has as protagonists the main characters of the complex story that takes place at the end of the Roman Republic and which describes the events of that time: Gnaeus Pompey and Julius Caesar, first of all, fighting for power in Rome, and then the Caesar's meeting with Cleopatra VII, from which Ptolemy XV Caesarion will be born; then Mark Antony and Octavian, avenging allies of Caesar's murder; finally, the new couple Cleopatra and Marco Antonio and their children, the twins Alessandro Helios and Cleopatra Selene and, finally, Ptolemy Philadelphius. Extraordinary events that redesigned the history and geography of the Mediterranean in the second half of the first century BC. C, told here through masterpieces such as the Portrait of Julius Caesar (about 30 BC, Vatican Museums) and that of Cleopatra found in Rome (about 45 BC, Vatican Museums), as well as splendid cameos, precious coins and other very rare objects .
The exhibition then investigates Cleopatra's “Roman years” (from 46 to 44 BC) when – as precious and rare archaeological documents testify – the customs and fashions of the city changed, under the influence of the queen and her court. While the matrons begin to dress up in the Egyptian style and wear jewels elaborated on the image of the sacred uraeus (the serpent symbol of kingship and immortality of the sovereigns), houses, villas and gardens are covered with paintings, mosaics, sculptures and furnishings inspired by the “magical” kingdom: it is “Egyptomania”. Alexandrian artists and craftsmen moved to Rome and other important centers of the Empire, to respond more quickly and adequately to the growing demands of the local patrician class. This is demonstrated by works of fine goldsmithing, among which the bracelet with a snake's body stands out (XNUMXst century BC-XNUMXst century AD, National Archaeological Museum of Naples), found among the possessions of a matron, perhaps the owner of the famous Casa del Faun in Pompeii; or the statue depicting the Sphinx (XNUMXst century AD, National Archaeological Museum, Naples) crouched with the headdress symbol of Pharaonic royalty, which had a decorative function for a fountain in the garden of a domus in the Vesuvian city, together with frescoes, mosaics, precious tableware in silver and alabaster, found in Rome and in the Roman world.
The Egyptian cults burst into the Roman Pantheon, albeit with resistance from the more conservative class of the senate, starting with that of Isis, the patron goddess of life but also of navigation so important for Rome. We admire her portrayed both in the traditional Egyptian garments – those worn by Cleopatra, incarnation of the goddess according to the Egyptian religion, from 36 until her death in 30 BC-, and in the Hellenistic-Roman ones, while she breastfeeds the child god Horus. Together with her are Anubis, protector of the dead, of whom a beautiful statue is exhibited (XNUMXst century BC – XNUMXst century AD, National Archaeological Museum, Naples), which depicts the dog-headed divinity and the body of Hermes-Mercury , product of the Hellenization of the Egyptian divinity, Bes, beneficial "gnome", Harpocrates as a boy, depicted on small magical steles, and others.
Having conquered Egypt in 30 BC and having disappeared from the scene because M. Antonio and Cleopatra committed suicide in the same year, the new rulers - first of all Caesar Octavian, "Augustus" and prince since 27 BC - must adapt to the millenary traditions of the land of the Nile to be welcomed and recognized as sovereign by the population. Cleopatra is somehow avenged: Augustus sits on the throne that belonged to him and his son Cesarione, killed in the meantime by the victor, and continues his role as god-pharaoh. Thus we see him, dressed to perfection in the traditional Egyptian dress and pharaonic attributes (especially the nemes headgear) in a unique museum, from the Champollion Museum in Figéac: a painted relief from the temple he erected in Kalabsha in Lower Nubia.
Also on display are Tiberius, always depicted as pharaoh, a mysterious and fascinating Portrait of a Roman emperor as pharaoh from the XNUMXst century AD from the Louvre and other successors of Augustus, such as Nero and probably Domitian, the latter advocate of Isiac cults in Rome.
Aegypto capta, “Conquered Egypt”, is engraved on the obverse of coins minted by Octavian around 28-27 BC, after his victory over Antony and Cleopatra. But the exhibition intends to tell how in reality it was also Rome that underwent the indisputable fascination of Egypt and was in turn conquered by it.
Cleopatra VII Thea Filopatore, the last queen of Egypt who reigned from 69 to 30 BC in fact indelibly marks her era. Not particularly beautiful but seductive, intelligent and resolute, with a brilliant intellect, cultured and refined, she bases her strength on her free and independent personality. A true "star" ante litteram, her presence has a cultural impact, as well as a political one, which can hardly be found in the following eras. Destined immediately to become an icon, Cleopatra is certainly one of the most discussed and represented figures in every shape and form.
The exhibition is open until February 2, 2014
Cloister of Bramante
Street of Peace
00186 Rome
www.chiostrodelbramante.it
