Frans FRANCKEN II (Antwerp, 1581 - 1642) The Peach of Antony and Cleopatra Prepared oak panel, reinforced 83 x 118 cm Signed lower right "D J FFranck . IN..." Cracks to panel Provenance : Acquired in Marseille in the 1990s. A femme fatale, a seductress who bewitched the two greatest warlords of her time, a strong woman and strategist capable of maintaining her throne in the face of adversity, Cleopatra VII inspired the most diverse artistic creations. Her legendary beauty, her sumptuous and tragic destiny still resonate today. Her life, which could only have been a series of events, became a legend uniting three civilizations: Egypt, Greece and Rome. In 41 B.C., three years after Caesar's assassination, her meeting with Marc Antony, general, triumvir[1] and governor of the Eastern provinces, was the prelude to a passionate love affair. The subject of our painting is unique in the art world. Given the extreme rarity of the subject, it is conceivable that our painting could have formed a pair with a scene that Francken illustrated several times in the 1630s, The Meeting of Antony and Cleopatra[2]. The episode is taken from the Life of Antony in Plutarch's Parallel Lives: "It would be long and childish to recount many of his joking traits; I will quote just one. One day, he was angling without catching anything, which mortified him because Cleopatra was present. So he ordered some fishermen to go underwater, unnoticed, and hook one of the fish they had already caught: they did so, and Antony pulled out his line, loaded with a fish, two or three times. The Egyptian woman was not fooled: she pretended to admire Antony's happiness, but revealed to her friends the ruse he had employed, and invited them to return the next day to watch the fishing. When they had all climbed into boats, and Antoine had cast out his line, she ordered one of her people to warn Antoine's fishermen, and to attach to his hook one of those salted fish brought from the kingdom of Pont[3]. Antony, having felt his line loaded, withdrew it; and the sight of this salted fish having excited great bursts of laughter: "General," she said to him, "leave the line to us, who reign at the Lighthouse and Canopus; your hunt is to take cities, kings and continents". The action takes place in the Nile delta. In this first half of the 17th century, the Egyptian picturesque had not yet been characterized by the archaeological research of the 18th and 19th centuries. On the hill, ancient buildings and an obelisk mark the sprawling city of Alexandria. Immediately below, in the crowd gathered on the riverbank, we can make out two women wearing large, round bohemian hats, associated with Egypt at the time. The court is depicted in the right foreground. The artist draws on his usual repertoire of turbaned Oriental figures in sumptuous velvet costumes and groups of elegant young women, as seen in his scenes from the Old Testament and ancient history[4]. One of them is breast-feeding her child, a recurring motif in our painter's depictions of the passage of the Red Sea[5], as is the presence of an isolated still life, here made up of a wide variety of shells and corals. The transparency of the water, the vibrations of the waves and the crests of the foam are all finely rendered. From the simple boat of Antony's accomplices, on the left, to the nave of the two protagonists decorated with tritons and a mermaid carved in relief in the wood, the interest of the composition also lies in the diversity of the boats in the background. Galleys of pageantry stand out on the horizon, flanked by oversized standards and shields, their sails folded over the yardarm, a reminder of Jan Brueghel the Elder's seascapes. A whole flotilla accompanies them. The boat masts, the two fishing rods and the oar create a rhythm of subtle vertical parallels. The central group immediately catches the eye: Antony, dressed in a tunic and cape, a veritable theatrical costume, is surrounded exclusively by women. Cleopatra and one of her servants wear a henna with a veil attached, while the others wear flowers in their hair. The queen is also distinguished by a necklace around her neck. [...] FOR A DETAILED DESCRIPTION, PLEASE REFER TO THE PDF CATALOG.