Caesar Giving Cleopatra the Throne of Egypt

Around 1637 a French collector, Louis Phélypeaux de La Vrillière, was filling a long gilded gallery in his new Paris mansion with big history paintings, and he ordered several of them from the leading Italian artists of the day. This is Pietro da Cortona's contribution, shipped from Rome. It shows a turn in Cleopatra's fortunes: Julius Caesar, in a red cloak and laurel crown, hands her the crown and sceptre of Egypt, settling a dynastic quarrel by choosing her over her sister Arsinoe. Cortona crowds the scene with soldiers and columns and keeps it in motion, the way his ceiling frescoes do. The canvas left that Paris gallery long ago and has hung in Lyon since 1811.