Red jasper intaglio: portrait head of Mark Antony

 

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On Caesar's assassination on 15 March 44 BC, Cleopatra had lost her powerful ally. Hearing that Caesar had left nothing for her and their son Caesarion, Cleopatra fled Rome with her child and husband (her second brother, now Ptolemy XIV), returning to an Egypt ridden with famine and plague.

Two men competed to succeed Caesar: his right-hand man and the designated consul, Mark Antony, and Caesar's adopted son and legal heir, Octavian. In 41 BC Mark Antony began an alliance, as much romantic as military, with Cleopatra. In 40 BC, twin children were born, but Antony deserted Cleopatra for a politically advantageous marriage with Octavian's sister Octavia. Three years and two daughters later, Octavia in her turn was abandoned for Cleopatra, with whom Antony stayed until their deaths in 30 BC.
The engraver of this intaglio has cut an exceptionally clear profile portrait of Mark Antony with long tousled hair, the locks carefully delineated, and no beard. The nose is hooked, the slightly open mouth down-turned, and the chin prominent. The features resemble those of Antony on some of his coin portraits, and the image ends at the neck. The intaglio may have been used as a seal by one of Antony's supporters.

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