Der Selbstmord der Kleopatra

The Suicide of Cleopatra (1558), in the Bavarian State Painting Collections, depicts the Egyptian queen's legendary death by asp bite — her chosen exit rather than submission to Roman triumph. Veronese renders Cleopatra's final moment with characteristic elegance, presenting her death as a performance of queenly dignity rather than desperate defeat. The subject belonged to a genre of noble female deaths popular in Renaissance art, where suicide was paradoxically presented as an act of virtue — choosing death over dishonor. Veronese's treatment emphasizes the sensuousness of the dying queen's body alongside the dramatic pathos of her act, creating the distinctive tension between beauty and death that pervades Venetian treatments of this theme.

The composition presents Cleopatra in the moment of her fatal choice, with the asp as the instrument of death. Veronese's luminous flesh tones and the rich fabrics of the royal setting create a scene of tragic elegance.