1-154-646 - Art Media/Heritage Images

'The Entourage of Cleopatra', 1746-47. One of the most important commissions carried out by Tiepolo in the 1740s was, without a doubt, the decoration of the Palazzo Labia in Venice. Tiepolo's scenes, The Meeting of Anthony and Cleopatra and The Banquet of Cleopatra, are staged within an illusory architecture, the scenic framework lending them a theatrical character. The two female servants with the dog are typical secondary figures, used time and again by Tiepolo in numerous works to enrich the main action.