Cleopatra's arrival at Tarsus

Cleopatra's ceremonial arrival at Tarsus to meet Mark Antony — described by Plutarch and dramatised repeatedly in European literature — offered painters one of history's great spectacles: the Egyptian queen on a gilded barge, attended by handmaidens dressed as Nereids, approaching a waiting Roman general. Charles Joseph Natoire painted this subject in 1756, now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nîmes, as part of a series of Cleopatra subjects for that collection. The subject combined the grandeur of historical narrative with the Rococo taste for spectacle, luxury, and feminine power. Nîmes, Natoire's native city, holds a significant group of his works relating to the Cleopatra narrative. This subject also had classical literary weight — Plutarch's Life of Antony, Shakespeare's play, and various French dramatic treatments made it widely familiar to educated audiences — ensuring that paintings on the subject were readily comprehensible.

The harbour and marine setting provides Natoire with the compositional challenge of combining architecture, water, boats, and a large gathering of figures. He organises the scene around the principal vertical and diagonal lines of the barge's canopy and mast, with Cleopatra's figure positioned to draw the eye. The palette combines the warm ochres of architecture with the cooler blues of water and sky.