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This painting is a design for the chased decoration of a silver basin, now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, formerly owned by the Giustiniani Longo family in Genoa and possibly dating from the 1620s. Pliny's 'Historia Naturalis' and Plutarch's 'Lives' are the sources for the narrative scenes: the central roundel shows 'The Death of Cleopatra', surrounded by a battle scene of cavalry and footsoldiers with distant ships, while the four ovals at the rim show 'The Formation of the Triumvirate' (Antony, Octavian and Lepidus); 'The Arrival of Cleopatra' (her barge is on the river Cydnus); 'The Banquet of Cleopatra' and 'The Death of Antony'. There are considerable variations between 'modello' and silver basin. Suggestions for the dating of this painting range from c.
Title
Design for a silver Basin
Date
c. 1613–c. 1624
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 57 x W 74 cm
Accession number
WA1969.139
Acquisition method
Purchased with the assistance of the Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund, 1969
Work type
Painting
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Beaumont Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 2PH England
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