A Staffordshire Pearlware figure, Cleopatra/Ariadne, reclini...

Hammer

£260

A Staffordshire Pearlware figure, Cleopatra/Ariadne, reclining wearing a flowing chiton painted with flowers, an asp coiled around her left arm, 20cm high, c.1820 This model is taken from a statue in Courtyard of Statues (Cortile delle Statue), Vatican and is of Ariadne sleeping, because the statue has a bracelet in the form of a serpent, it was believed to be of Cleopatra, who killed herself with the bite of an asp. In 1700's Ennio Quirino Visconti recognised the original statue as being of Ariadne