Explore the Ancient Egyptian about the Cultural analysis of this artwork, Bust of Cleopatra.
Roberta Shaw, Assistant Curator of World Cultures at the Royal Ontario Museum suggest, "the statue probably stood outside some important municipal building. Perhaps a temple, perhaps the famous Alexandrian Library." The object's meaning within Ancient Egyptian culture stems from its role as a municipal statue. The small-sized nature demonstrates the statue would have been seen on a daily basis for the late Ptolemaic Egyptians; it would have been displayed at a level where the public could easily identify it as Cleopatra VII.
In contrast, the Roman busts of Cleopatra that have survived, including the Berlin Cleopatra in the Altes Museum and the Vatican Cleopatra in the Vatican Museums (excluding the now disputed British Museum bust of Cleopatra thought to be a Roman woman imitating her hairstyle), depict the queen as a Hellenistic Greek monarch with a royal diadem and "melon" hairstyle of her Ptolemaic Greek ancestors Arsinoe II and Berenice II. A Hellenistic bust in the Archaeological Museum of Cherchel, Algeria again shows Cleopatra wearing the royal diadem, symbol of Greek kingship, but with a different hairstyle than the Berlin and Vatican busts. Another Parian-marble Roman bust of Cleopatra exists in the Capitoline Museums of Rome, but it features her wearing an Egyptian-style vulture headdress instead of a diadem.
Berenice II Cleopatra VII Ptolemaic Greek Vatican Cleopatra Altes Museum diadem British Museum Royal Ontario Museum Arsinoe II Hellenistic Roman busts Parian-marble Hellenistic Greek Roman Cherchel Ptolemaic Vatican Museums Ptolemaic Egypt Alexandria Alexandrian Library Egypt bust of Cleopatra Capitoline Museums Cleopatra Ancient Egypt "melon" hairstyle Archaeological Museum Berlin Cleopatra