MID 2ND CENTURY B.C.

Details

A HELLENISTIC PARIAN MARBLE PORTRAIT HEAD OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT
MID 2ND CENTURY B.C.
With luxuriant wavy hair, cupid bow lips and unarticulated eyes, head inclined slightly to left, a hole for fixing a diadem in the top of his head, traces of red on eyes and mouth and remains of gilding, mounted
7¼ in. (18.5 cm.) high

Provenance

Said to have come from Ashmounein (ancient Hermopolis).
Wilhelm Horn (1870-1959); acquired from Maurice Nahman, Cairo, 6 March 1933.

Exhibited

Antiken aus rheinischem Privatbesitz, Rheinischen Landesmuseum, Bonn, 1973-1974.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

PUBLISHED:
P. Arndt and W. Amelung, Photographische Einzelaufnahmen antiker Sculpturen, Munich, 1893, nos. 3902-3.
Antiken aus rheinischem Privatbesitz, Rheinischen Landesmuseum, Bonn, 1973-1974, pp. 211-212, no. 352, pl. 159.

This head is from a known group of Hellenistic portraits of Alexander the Great from Egypt, and all approximately one third life-size. This one appears to have been gilded judging from the dark brown patches with remains of gold leaf above eyebrow and on hair.

For a full discussion of this head and its place in the Alexander portrait iconography, see Nikolaus Himmelmann's catalogue entry in the above publication Antiken aus rheinischem Privatbesitz.

For a similar terracotta head of Alexander, cf. Dr. D. Wildung and Prof. dr. G. Grimm, Götter Pharaonen, exhibition catalogue, Mainz, 1978, no. 77.

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