All it took was a two-minute trailer in mid-April to electrify the press around the world. In the docu-fiction Queen Cleopatraproduced by Jada Pinkett-Smith, Cleopatra takes on the features of Adele James, a black actress. “Cancel culture” for some, issue of representation for others… There is at least one point on which everyone agrees: the last queen of Egypt has fascinated people for 2,000 years.
By Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra (1963) at Katy Perry in the clip of Dark Horse (2013), The Pathfinder deciphers how history and pop culture have taken hold of the figure of Cleopatra, with art historian François de Callataÿ, author of Cleopatra, uses and misuses of her image (Royal Belgian Academy, 2015), and his colleague Claire Mercier, business manager and doctoral student in Roman history, with whom he is working on a new book on the Egyptian sovereign.
Why were you respectively interested in the figure of Cleopatra?
François de Callataÿ : After a symposium in Brussels for which I had gathered more than 150,000 images from Antiquity, I became interested in a book in the representations of Cleopatra in the history of art, in the way her image had always passed by the eyes of white men from the aristocracy. It was Cleopatra who made me fall into pop culture when I was invited to participate in a cycle of conferences led by the group Antiquipopwhich analyzes references to Antiquity in popular culture.
Claire Mercier : For my part, after setting up my business, I returned to my first love by starting a thesis on the reception of Antiquity in advertising in France. Inevitably, Cleopatra holds a large place there.
François de Callataÿ : Together, we are working on an essay in which we demonstrate how Cleopatra established herself as a planetary historical icon, supporting figures. Just one example: Cleopatra belongs to the very select club of characters who have a little plastic duck in their likeness, with the Queen of England and Donald Trump!
We immersed ourselves in several online sales sites, we explored the Deviant Art artistic community, we analyzed the image of Cleopatra in Europe, Africa or America, when represented by men or by women , we even looked at the pharaoh costumes that are selling around the world to come to the conclusion that each one has on Cleopatra.
His physical appearance is controversial today. What do we know of his features?
Claire Mercier : We usually summon the Greek philosopher Plutarch, who explains that she was not really beautiful, but that she had charm, and that her conversation was pleasant. I also notice that the question of the beauty of Cleopatra agitates everyone, while no one wonders if Caesar was beautiful or not! Very few works speak of Cleopatra’s physical appearance, but the Latin poet Lucan, and even the historian and Roman consul Dion Cassius, whose texts were oriented against Cleopatra, speak of her great beauty.
François de Callataÿ : There is a topos [une idée reçue] in the story that all queens and kings are tall, beautiful, strong and powerful. In Antiquity, it was primarily the fact that Cleopatra was powerful that made her attractive. Another fundamental element: her education, which had at its court the best poets, scholars, grammarians, had nothing to do with that of Roman women. Cleopatra is the product of the finest Hellenistic culture, and her fine wit must have subjugated the Roman generals she encountered.
Claire Mercier : Moreover, the Roman writers who speak of Cleopatra are necessarily oriented. It would be unthinkable to describe Octavie, Octave’s sister and second wife of the Roman general Marc Antony, as less beautiful than Cleopatra, when the latter had a ten-year relationship with Marc Antony.
What does the controversy around the series inspire in you? Queen Cleopatra ?
Claire Mercier: No other historical figure continues to cause scandal after 2,000 years. Cleopatra unleashes and will always unleash passions, and each era transposes its ideological or societal questions onto it. Here, it is the “noisy” minority that we hear. But the silent minority see her in a classic way, and do not recognize themselves in a black Cleopatra. Moreover, it is very unlikely that she was black or mixed race. Cleopatra is the fruit of the house of the Ptolemies, they are Greco-Macedonians who have always reproduced among themselves.
François de Callataÿ: I especially remember from this affair that Cleopatra leaves no one indifferent. The Cleopatra as we imagine her today probably has nothing to do with the Cleopatra who existed, she never dressed in a pharaonic way. But, in art history, it is more interesting to see what has been done with her than to wonder what she looked like.
François de Callataÿ : There are two representations that have shaped minds. That of Shakespeare, but especially that of Plutarch. At Plutarch’s, at Iis century after J. – C., Cleopatra represents a danger for Rome, it is the eternal East which softens the Roman general. Conversely, the XVIIe century is the moment when it is most celebrated, and the episode of the pearl is often represented. This is the first meeting, in Tarsus, Turkey, between Cleopatra and Marc Antoine. According to Plutarch, they decide to play “who will offer the most sumptuous meal to the other”.
While Antoine brings ever more fabulous dishes, Cleopatra simply undoes a pearl of very great value which she had in her ear, and dissolves it in a cup of vinegar which she makes carry to her adversary. But the worst period in history for its image is the second half of the XIXe century. Cleopatra becomes a sadist, a poisoner who kills her lovers after a night of love.
Claire Mercier: It is interesting to note that in the XIXe century, she once again becomes the Egyptian, the foreigner. His skin is still white, but his clothes are reminiscent of the Orient.
And after the nineteenthe century ?
Claire Mercier: The evolution of feminism in our Western countries has changed our vision of Cleopatra. And the cinema of course played a role. American actress Theda Bara, who starred in one of the first silent films about Cleopatra in 1917, is a vamp, a femme fatale. We are still in the repertoire of the woman who is a little dangerous, but who has more power. The following Cleopatras fit perfectly with the image of the woman we had at the time.
François de Callataÿ: French actress Claudette Colbert, who plays in Cleopatra by Cecil B. DeMille (1934), is described with a completely standard typing profile.
Claire Mercier: In Two nights with Cleopatra (1954), Sophia Loren is totally “cruchitude”. Finally, it is with Elizabeth Taylor, in Cleopatra by Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1963), that we begin to get out of the stereotypes of the brainless girl or the vamp, and that we have a more complex character.
Is it the work that remains the most striking, even 60 years later?
Claire Mercier: Certainly. I did the test recently on my students: I showed them Liz Taylor’s eyes in the movie and they all recognized Cleopatra. On the other hand, almost no one knew the actress, and some thought of Monica Bellucci. The image of this film continues to mark our imagination, it is he who imposed the image of today’s Cleopatra, her makeup, with the line of kohl and this outrageous blue on the eyes, her hairstyle…
François de Callataÿ: In 1961 and 1962, the filming woes and romance between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton generated nearly 400 magazine covers with just Liz Taylor’s face. No other historical event has had as many covers as this film. And there is Asterix and Obelix, Cleopatra mission, which is the fourth most viewed French film in France, with 18 million admissions. It is a phenomenon of massive diffusion. Moreover, over the last decades, we observe that the sexualization of Cleopatra is reinforced. It is enough that we have a sexy woman, represented with a pyramid or a Sphinx for anyone to recognize her.
Claire Mercier: There are different Cleopatras depending on the targets. When she speaks to a more feminine target, she is an attractive woman, but above all stronger, with power. Like Katy Perry in the music video Dark Horse, For example. Cleopatra is often surrounded by cats, while for the male target, we see her with big cats.
And then there is the child target, with manga from the 1970s, the Cleopatra glue, which marked an entire generation, and even cartoons Cleopatra in space, broadcast on France Télévisions, in which she is a mischievous princess who rebels against her father. Today, children no longer necessarily meet Cleopatra at school, since teachers have the choice between Egypt and Mesopotamia. It is through pop culture, films, series, clips that they will know it in the future.
Advertising has also seized on the legendary Cleopatra…
Claire Mercier: Yes ! I’m thinking of Kellog’s ad for Ancient Legends cereal. Cleopatra is having breakfast, and the subtext is “thanks to my cereal, I will have enough energy for my day as a queen”. There is also an advertisement for the extra-marital dating site Gleeden which features her. We see a painting of the XIXe with a naked Cleopatra, being bitten by a snake and visibly enjoying it, with the slogan “Cleopatra also had Caesar as Julius”. It’s about convincing women to enroll, but the target, behind it, is men. And then, we find it in Russian, Polish, Mexican advertisements…
So Cleopatra is a global icon?
Claire Mercier: Yes, absolutely. In the names of trademarks, it is found almost everywhere on Earth.
François de Callataÿ: When we take different historical figures, we realize that their popularity is often localized. Vercingetorix, for example, is not important in England. With Cleopatra, there is a geographical scope, a historical length, the fact that she speaks to all genders, all ages and all social classes… We know enough, and at the same time, enough little about her, to attach to it the imaginary that we want. And it is backed by a very strong movement which is Egyptomania.
For you, is she a feminist icon?
Claire Mercier: It depends on the targets once again, since Cleopatra is recovered in all sauces. She’s going to be a feminist for feminists, she can be “woke”, like right now… Cleopatra is a total marketing success because you can do whatever you want with it.
2023-05-10 10:11:29
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