How does this artwork elucidate its Development?
Gérôme made at least two previous oil paintings and a number of sketches in preparation for the work.  One  shows Cleopatra lying on the ground stretching out to Julius Caesar  with Apollodorus crouching behind her.  In one variation before the finished version, Caesar is shown by himself with his hands on the desk (instead of outstretched) without his four secretaries. When the work was finished in 1866, Cleopatra's position changed to show her standing before Caesar with Apollodorus bent down beside her.Gérôme painted the scene based on the meeting between Cleopatra and Caesar written in the Life of Caesar by Greek historian Plutarch (c. AD 46 – AD 120) more than a century after the incident took place.   Even though Gérôme visited Egypt in 1857, where George W. Whiting of Rice University notes "he acquired numerous abundant local color and exact detail" that informed the painting of Cleopatra and Caesar, the Egyptian background setting in the work is derived from a plate in a volume from the Description de l'Égypte (1809–29) that depicts a temple at Deir el-Medina.
plate Plutarch Cleopatra Deir el-Medina Julius Caesar Description de l'Égypte Apollodorus Life of Caesar