As of June 2024, I have finished my series 'Historical Figures'. These include Cleopatra VII, Grace O'Malley, Septimus Severus, Boudicca, Hypatia, Sappho and Ching Shih.
Cleopatra VII was one of the last of the Ptolemy Dynasty, who ruled Egypt for hundreds of years. In this artwork I chose to portray Cleopatra as ethnically ambiguous - while she was of Greco-Macedonian descent, her family lived in Egypt for almost 300 years. They were highly inbred in efforts to keep a 'pure' bloodline, but after 300 years of living in Egypt it's more than likely that Cleopatra had a small amount of ethnically egyptian genetics in her.
This Roman bust depicts Cleopatra with a prominent nose and curly hair in a bun. I based Cleopatra's hair and headdress off this statue.
This is one of the few depictions of Cleopatra from her lifetime, depicting her as Venus. It shows her here with lighter skin and a Mediterranean appearance.
I based her jewellery and makeup on ancient Egyptian fashion.
I included pearls in her outfit as she was known to be fond of pearls - she apparently would crush them up and put them in her wine.
Grace O'Malley (Grainne Mhaol) was a 16th century Irish sea captain. I chose to give Grace pale, cool-toned skin and warm, coppery hair to reflect her Irish ancestry. I used some warmer pink tones in her skin to bring a little life into her complexion. I purposefully chose to give Grace pale eyebrows, as this is very common amongst redheads. I enjoyed using pale yellow and gold tones in Grace's hair to represent light streaming through.
Grace is depicted in a statue at Westport House:
Septimus Severus was a Roman Emperor born in North Africa with Italian and Carthaginian ancestry. I chose to depict Septimus as black due to two factors: firstly, the Roman Empire is so often white washed when in fact it was very ethnically and culturally diverse, and two, contemporary artworks depict Septimus with dark skin.
Here is a facial reconstruction based on artwork, sculptures and coins by Daniel Voshart (2020) for World History Encyclopedia.
Boudicca was the leader of an indigenous English tribe known as the Iceni, who took revenge on the Romans after they brutalised her and raped her daughters. There are very few accurate depictions of Boudicca to go off, and the account of her by the Romans may have been embellished. Tacitus describes her as 'very tall' with 'tawny' hair that 'fell to her hips'. He describes her as a fear-invoking woman - 'in appearence most terrifying, the glance of her eye most fierce and her voice was harsh'. I chose to depict Boudicca as nude, rather than in her usual tunic and torc, because the artwork shows her directly after she was stripped naked and flogged by the Romans. Here, she is contemplating her options.
Hypatia and Alexandria was a philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and teacher. She was described by Damascius as 'exceedingly beautiful and fair of form'. She was likely of mixed Egyptian and Greek descent. She was sometimes described as the 'last of the Hellenes', though Neoplatonism survived after her death.
Sappho of Lesbos was an ancient Greek poetess whose love of women and devotion to Aphrodite survived the ages in text fragments.
I chose to depict Sappho with violets in her hair as a nod toward one of her poems, in which she describes her lover being decorated in garlands of flowers, including violets. Throughout the 20th century and even now, violets were used to symbolise sapphic love.
Ching Shih was a 19th Century Chinese pirate and the most successful female pirate in history.
I based her clothes off both this portrait of Ching Shih by piratesinfo.com and these two photographs of her:
The pearl earring in the artwork is a nod to the most famous photohgraph of Ching Shih on the right.
As my Historical Figures Series comes to a close for now, I'd love to hear your thoughts on who I should include if i choose to open this project back up again!
Related Posts
