Introduction
The image provided is identified as the sculpture of Alexander the Great. The statue played an essential role in ushering in the Hellenistic Era. Being one of the Hellenistic Era’s most prominent figures, Alexander the Great is easily recognizable. Moreover, the sculpture on the picture has been well conserved, which definitely helps with its identification. The statue of Alexander the Great depicts a king, warrior, conqueror, and brilliant tactician from Greek’s Minoan and Mycenaean eras.
Object
The object has a typical form, size, texture, and colour for sculptures in the Hellenistic Era. The original sculpture belongs to the Israel Museum collection, with all rights reserved to the Israel Antiquities Authority (Slapak) (Romano et al., 2021). It was made out of marble during the reign of Alexander the Great and was initially found in Greece. Plutarch (1906) noted how Lysippus made statues ‘that gave the best representation of Alexander’s person’ (Alexander chapter). The era is unknown because it could be any date after 300 BC.
Alexander the Great was famous for his victory at the Battle of Gaugamela in 331 BC. He also conquered many other territories and cities, including Egypt, Persia, and India (Alexander the Great, 2020). Thus, the object is a tribute to a great leader and commander, commemorating what Alexander achieved with his army by emerging victorious over other countries. There was a great deal of political and military tension at the time, and if Alexander had not been victorious, it would have undermined his reputation as a great king. Artists who usually made sculptures of the Macedonian conqueror were Greeks. The object is most probably the head of one of many statues Alexander commissioned from them.
Subject and Style
The statue is stylised to show how physically big Alexander was. The sculpture’s facial features and neck muscles are very detailed to highlight his assertive demeanor (Romano et al., 2021). The object portrays the conqueror as though he is alive and looks at the viewer. His hair is thick and healthy, with curly locks sticking out in various directions. In the sculpture, Alexander looks like he is a well-padded4 and handsome man in the prime of his life. These ‘are all typical features of Alexander’ that various sculptors used for his depiction (Head of a statue of Alexander the Great, n.d., para. 2). Successors of Lysippus ‘and his friends used … to imitate, the inclination of his head a little on one side towards his left shoulder, and his melting eye’ (Plutarch, 1906, Alexander chapter). It looks like the people who made the object tried to portray an ideal of what a young Greek man should look like rather than an actual historical figure. As such, the conqueror is youthful and energetic, and, looking at bodies that have been made for these heads, Alexander has an athletic and healthy body, robust stature, and steady stance.
Significance
The significance of the sculpture of the head of Alexander the Great is not proven. The statue needs reconstructive measures to understand the original context and effect of the piece. The placement, use, and economics of this item are not precise. It seems that only a few details, such as period, are known for sure. As a result, only assumptions about what the object may imply can be made based on other items of the same era and region.
In this period, art was not solely considered a form of entertainment. It affected political, cultural, and social levels in many ways (Smith, 2017). Some of these levels would have motivated individuals to invest their time and resources into creating items like this. The sculpture of Alexander the Great is an example of placement, activities, and material in the Hellenistic Era. It was made from marble following critical considerations of ancient Greek artistry and used in Hellenistic Greece.
Bibliography
Alexander the Great (2020) Web.
Head of a statue of Alexander the Great (n.d.) Web.
Plutarch (1906) Plutarch’s lives, vol. 4. Translated by J. Dryden. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company.
Romano, I. B., Tambakopoulos, D., & Maniatis, Y. (2021) A Roman Portrait of Alexander the Great from Beth Shean. “The most important Hellenistic sculpture found in the Holy Land”. Israel Museum Studies in Archaeology, 10, pp. 2-28.
Smith, R. R. (2017) Hellenistic sculpture under the roman empire: Regional Schools in Hellenistic Sculpture, pp. 253-260.