Bill Rush: ‘The Banquet of Cleopatra’

The Banquet of Cleopatra Giovanni Batista Tiepolo 1743-44 National Gallery of Victoria Oysters first, then lobster, best of Neptune’s larder, a procession of platters: roasted zebra and gazelle, crocodile from the Nile on skewers, a hundred larks’ tongues, songless from somewhere, inside a pigeon, inside a goose, inside a duck, inside a peacock, its jewelled coat restored. Bread of emmer wheat to soak up gravy, baskets of cheese, olives from Carthage, malachite-green asparagus ferried from the Delta. Antony comes closer on the couch as slices of melon arrive, spreadeagled with figs, bronze dates and ruby plums.

She drops a pearl [...



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