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- 17th Century Dutch Painting
- Banquet of Antony and Cleopatra , 1669
- oil on canvas
- 97 7/8 in. x 75 3/16 in. (248.6 cm x 190.98 cm)
- Jan de Bray (Haarlem, Netherlands, circa 1627 - 1697, Haarlem, Netherlands)
- Dutch
- Museum Purchase: Currier Funds, 1969.8
- On View
Although the figures in this painting are dressed in seventeenth-century Dutch costume, the subject is one of the many legends that surround the love affair between Mark Antony and Cleopatra. Antony and Cleopatra made a wager over who could provide the most expensive banquet. Cleopatra called for a glass of vinegar into which she dropped one of her pearl earrings; she waited for it to dissolve, and then swallowed it. With this act, Cleopatra served the costliest meal. De Bray depicted the climactic moment when she nonchalantly removes the priceless pearl from her ear.
The artist's parents, who died in the plague of 1663-64, are portrayed as Antony and Cleopatra. De Bray's wife, who died during childbirth in 1669, is the second woman in profile on the right. The figure on the left, holding the halberd, is the artist's self-portrait.
