Frederick Arthur Bridgman (1847 – 1928) American artist known for his paintings of “Orientalist” subjects.
Born in Tuskegee, Alabama, he was the son of a physician. He began as a draughtsman in New York City, for the American Bank Note Company in 1864–1865, and studied art in the same years at the Brooklyn Art Association and at the National Academy of Design.
He went to Paris in 1866, and in 1867 he entered the studio of the noted academic painter Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904), where he was deeply influenced by Gérôme’s precise draftsmanship, smooth finishes, and concern for Middle-Eastern themes. Thereafter, Paris became his headquarters.
Bridgman made his first trip to North Africa between 1872 and 1874, dividing his time between Algeria and Egypt. There he executed approximately three hundred sketches, which became the source material for several later oil paintings that attracted immediate attention.
Bridgman became known as “the American Gérôme”, although Bridgman would later adopt a more naturalistic aesthetic, emphasizing bright colors and painterly brushwork.
Guido Reni, The Death of Cleopatra 1598
Cleopatra was born in 69 B.C. in Alexandria and came to reign in 51B.C.and was of 17 years of age..
Cleo is by far one of the most ever famous queens of all times in ancient Egypt. Her story of love and death is very famous and she ruled Egypt and made it quite powerful at the time.
The last days and death of Cleopatra and Mark Antony. Antony died a slow death after an initially unsuccessful suicide attempt by way of a stab wound to the abdomen.
It is argued that Cleopatra (and her two servants) probably committed suicide through poisoning, rather than the bite of an asp (viper) as is popularly believed.
Death occurred very rapidly and the bodies showed no recognisable snake bite wounds. Fatal viper bites are characteristically associated with prominent, swollen and haemorrhagic wounds.
Cobras may cause rapid death in spite of minor bite wounds, but in order to kill three adults, the snake would have to be large. Legend has it that the reptile was smuggled to Cleopatra in a small basket of figs, which would not have been possible with a large snake.
According to the Egyptologist Joyce Tyldesley, she sustain who would have happened in the room, how the snake entered, where the snake would have gone and still more.
As per the historical records, Cleopatra died in Alexandria at around 30 BC and there was no historical evidence for her prior illness. The decision to die in front of the female servants created a practical note that even in her death she required a chaperone.
Egyptian Mummy Portrait: Head of a Woman 130 - 160 AD Painting
Long before realistic portrait painting developed in Europe in the Renaissance, Roman-Egyptian artists did striking likenesses in wax on limewood.
Dating from the later period of Roman rule in Egypt, shortly before the birth of Christ, the painted mummy portraits are among the most remarkable products of the ancient world, a fusion of the traditions of pharonic Egypt and the Classical world.
They are historical and cultural objects of outstanding importance and beauty, superb works of art that represent some of the earliest known examples of life-like portraiture.
Though the subjects of the portraits believed in the traditional Egyptian cults, which offered them a firm prospect of life after death, they also wished to be commemorated in the Roman manner, with their fashion of dress and adornment signaling their status in life.
Despite their ancient history, these portraits speak to the modern eye with a beauty and intensity that would be lost to portraiture until the Renaissance.
