17th Italian Marble Head of Alexander the Great

Beautiful and imposing neoclassical marble head of Alexander the Great, Italy, Rome, 17th century.

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC), who enjoys great posterity throughout history, cultures and religions, was the subject of numerous works of art from Antiquity to the present day, making him one of the major political figures of art western. Most contemporary or original works have disappeared, although many copies were made in Roman times, especially in the field of sculpture; In the 17th and 18th centuries, Alexander inspired sculptors who were part of classicism.

The head, slightly larger than life, presents a strong lateral and backward twist in a typical heroic attitude. His face, with strong but regular features and an open mouth, is crowned by thick hair with locks which, on the forehead, are arranged in an ascending movement (anastole) characteristic of portraits of Alexander the Great.
It was the sculptor Lysippos who, in creating the portrait of Alexander the Great, transformed the physical defect which required the leader, according to sources, to keep his head strongly inclined on one shoulder in an upward attitude which seems to allude to a certain kidnapping. celestial, “a silent conversation with the divinity”.

The finely crafted model should derive from one of the numerous portraits of Alexander the Great, of the Acropolis Museum type (young Alexander) or more reliably of the Pergamene type. Our head dates back to the second half of the 17th century and it is no coincidence: 17th century Europe was rich in collections of archaeological finds and marble sculptures, in particular from the Roman but also Hellenic era which evoked, in the ideal of noble classes, a refined and idealized taste for the ancient that pushed towards a reproduction but also a reworking of the classical style.

Measure
H cm 33
W cm 24
D cm 27