Master Sculpture from Four Millennia
Master Sculpture from Four Millennia
A Hellenistic Marble Bust of Alexander the Great, circa 3rd Century B.C.
Auction Closed
July 4, 03:04 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
A Hellenistic Marble Bust of Alexander the Great
circa 3rd Century B.C.
turned to his right, with parted lips and strong chin, his luxuriant wavy hair swept up above the forehead, covering the ears, and bound in a fillet, the neck carved for insertion.
Height 13.8 cm.
Scottish private collection, by inheritance from the above
acquired by the present owner at auction in the United Kingdom
Two very similar miniature busts of Alexander the Great are in Alexandria: M. Kovacs, Vom Herrscher zum Heros. Die Bildnisse Alexanders des Großen und die Imitatio Alexandri, 2022, p. 165, pl. 43f. They are closely related to the present example both in scale and style. Several other miniature heads of Alexander the Great are known, for example heads in Leipzig (Kovacs cit., p. 165, pl. 45;https://arachne.dainst.org/entity/1091550), in Princeton (Kovacs cit., p. 169, pl. 46; https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/55773), and a pair of identical heads in Budapest (Kovacs cit., p. 218f., pl. 73f.; https://arachne.dainst.org/entity/1063461).
Most of these heads of Alexander were produced in Ptolemaic Alexandria and must have been displayed in private contexts because of their small size. The present head was carved for insertion into a statuette, the body of which could have been depicted in one of two ways: either wearing a short chiton, chlamys, and boots (as in a statuette of Alexander in Athens: Kovacs cit., pp. 90ff., pl. 13,3), or wearing a long aegis (as in a statuette in the Louvre: Kovacs cit., pp. 133ff., pl. 34,2; https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010277275).