Cleopatra's wig

Here you can see a detail of Cleopatra's head (I´ll probably work on it later again). Cleopatra wears a tripartite wig and a head-dress with several uraei, a solar disk between cow's horns and double plumes.

It is true that often the nobility shaved their heads and used wigs. This was also a question of hygiene - head lice were quite a nuisance then - evidence of them can be found in mummies.

The royal wigs were pieces of art. Often the wigs were made of real human hair and braided in many styles.

Painting this wig was quite a lot of work. I´ll attach here a little snapshot of the details. You may guess I use a miniature brush...

The process was so time consuming and difficult I sometimes felt like throwing the brushes to our cats who very much would have wanted to play hockey with them.



But here is the detail of the wig behind Cleopatra's shoulder.