Antony and Cleopatra
Costume Design
1960 (drawn)
1960 (drawn)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
Designer Rouben Ter-Arutunian worked regularly at the American Shakespeare Festival at Statford Connecticut from 1956. This costume design was for the theatre's 1960 production of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra starring Robert Ryan and Katharine Hepburn. Caldwell Titcomb, reviewing the production in the Harvard Crimson, described Rouben Ter-Arutunian's designs as 'basic but effective settings and stunning costumes (which range from a black-and-gold tent-like shroud in which Cleopatra commits suicide to the sketchiest of breechclouts worn by her Egyptian slaves)', and noted that 'John Ragin offers a cleanly acted and crisply spoken Octavius'.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Antony and Cleopatra (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Pen and ink and watercolour on tracing paper |
| Brief description | Costume design by Rouben Ter-Arutunian for Octavius Caesar in armour in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra at Stratford Connecticut, 1960 |
| Physical description | Pen and watercolour design on tracing paper, showing Octavius Caesar in armour. Caesar wears silver-grey armour over a grey tunic and has a sword, gauntlets, silver sandals and a close-fitting helmet. Rouben Ter-Arutunian has stuck a second piece of tracing paper on the design to show the helmet with and without a plumed crest. |
| Dimensions |
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| Marks and inscriptions |
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| Credit line | Given by Richard Buckle |
| Object history | Given to the V&A by dance critic, Richard Buckle, who was probably given it by Lincoln Kirstein, co-founder of New York City Ballet. |
| Summary | Designer Rouben Ter-Arutunian worked regularly at the American Shakespeare Festival at Statford Connecticut from 1956. This costume design was for the theatre's 1960 production of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra starring Robert Ryan and Katharine Hepburn. Caldwell Titcomb, reviewing the production in the Harvard Crimson, described Rouben Ter-Arutunian's designs as 'basic but effective settings and stunning costumes (which range from a black-and-gold tent-like shroud in which Cleopatra commits suicide to the sketchiest of breechclouts worn by her Egyptian slaves)', and noted that 'John Ragin offers a cleanly acted and crisply spoken Octavius'. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | S.573-2019 |
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| Record created | September 2, 2019 |
| Record URL |
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