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Portia's Dream
Portia's Dream
2012
Brian Clarke's bronze sculpture Portia’s Dream from 2012 is a companion piece to Caesar Released from the Prison of Ambition. The composition consists of an equilateral cross poised above calligraphic lines, all rising from a square plinth.
As in Caesar Released from the Prison of Ambition, Clarke's title references the events in William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. In this play, Caesar’s wife Calpurnia foresees her husband’s death in a dream and warns him not to go to the Senate. Portia's Dream refers to Brutus's wife, who famously begs her husband to confide in her and later commits suicide.