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Cleopatra’s Banquet – this large enamel picture by Georg Friedrich Dinglinger, the brother of the much more famous Johann Melchior Dinglinger, is a technical masterpiece. It’s based on an oil painting by the Hamburg-born artist, Ottmar Elliger the Younger. And it’s possible that Dinglinger had seen the original.

The story of Cleopatra’s banquet was recorded by the first century Roman author Pliny the Elder in his Historia Naturalis as an example of wasteful luxury. The Egyptian queen, whom you see on the right in a theatrical setting, displays her immeasurable wealth to her guests – her lover Mark Anthony and his men – by dissolving one of her precious pearls in a bowl of vinegar. The Roman general and his friend only just manage to prevent her from destroying the second pearl as well!

Dinglinger’s picture is striking for the various colours and tones of the garments, and the strong contrast of light and dark. The unusual size of the enamel picture suggests that the boldly experimental enameller was trying to compete with great painting. The technique of enamelling is highly complex. There’s a danger in works of this size and which have many figures and colours that the glass enamel will become overheated during the long periods in the kiln. That can distort the colours. This picture, for instance, has cracks, particularly on the lower edge, and colour distortions. So it was never offered for sale to August the Strong, but remained in the Dinglingers’ possession. It was only later acquired for the Green Vault.