Famous Vase shows Cleopatra

Oxford, December 19th, 2004 -- Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt is probably depicted with her
consort Antony on the famous Roman Portland Vase, according to eminent archaeologist
Dr. Susan Walker, Keeper of Antiquites at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Dr Walker has come up with a new theory that it is Cleopatra pictured in relief on the most
famous and most influential piece of glass in the world, pulling Antonys hand in a
suggestive gesture to join her. Dr Walker told an International Archaeology Conference, in
Oxford at the weekend that the last queen of Egypt was presented at Rome as the fatal
monster (Horace), whore-queen of incestuous Canopus (Properrius).
Dr Walker thinks the woman on the vase resembles Cleopatra as an image of the Egyptian
goddess Isis in Roman caricature.
Particular attention was paid to Cleopatras alleged appetites for alcohol and sex, and to
her corruption of Mark Antony, who as her consort was said to have abandoned his
Herculean identity as a successful Roman general for a dissolute Dionysiac lifestyle, said
Dr Walker.
Dr Walker believed she was the first to speculate that the ceramic vase, housed in the
British Museum, must have featured the story of Antony and Cleopatra. She added:
Students of Roman art have long been familiar with objects large and small, made for
public circulation or personal use to celebrate Octavians victory over Antony and Cleopatra
at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the subsequent annexation of Egypt for the Roman
people.
In the years before and after this pivotal event, a virulent campaign of propaganda was
waged by Octavian against Cleopatra. In the words of the Augustan poet Propertius, the
last queen of Egypt was presented at Rome as the whore-queen of incestuous Canopus.

Dr Walker explained that in the early empire, cameo glass plaques and vessels enjoyed a
spectacular if brief vogue as objects of luxury. Traditionally associated with Alexandria by
historians of Roman art, most cameo glass is now thought to have been made in Italy for a
Roman clientele. The iconography of the figured pieces has proved difficult to interpret:
long regarded as Dionysiac, each vessel has presented problems of understanding within
the known repertoire. Dr Walker has suggested that craftsmen sometimes adapted the
imagery of the mystery cults of Dionysos and Isis to an Alexandrian setting. The glass,
carved in white on a blue background in imitation of classical relief sculpture, offered a
means to tell an elite audience the story of the fall of Antony and Cleopatra, who had
presented themselves while living rulers as Dionysos and Isis.
Dr Walker is the author of The Portland Vase recnetly published by the British Museum
Press, and was formerly Deputy Keeper of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities
at the British Museum in London.
The 2004 International Archaeology Conference, entitled City and Harbour: The
Archaeology of Ancient Alexandria, was held this weekend under the auspices of the
Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology (OCMA), a centre of Oxford Universitys Institute
of Archaeology. The conference examined what recent archaeological work, both land
based and maritime, contributed to our understanding of the city of Alexandria. A variety
of scientific disciplines, all of which have helped to explain the rise and decline of ancient
Alexandria, were part of the event.
The conference was hosted by the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology.
For more information please contact:
Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology
Jonathan Cole
Phone: +44 (0) 1865 202243
jonathan.cole@archaeology.ox.ac.uk

For pictures please contact:

British Museum Press Office
Phone: +44 (0)20 7323 8583/8522
Direct Order at:
www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/compass/

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Julie Schwetlick
Phone: +49 40 226 58 322
julie.schwetlick@salaction.de

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