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Lot Essay
Pliny the Elder (Nat. Hist. 35:36) relates how Apelles was engaged by the Emperor Alexander to paint his favourite concubine, the beautiful Campaspe, and how while doing so he fell in love with her. Alexander, as a mark of appreciation of the painter's work, gave her to him as a gift.
The style of this picture is comparable to Casali's Cleopatra's Banquet (formerly in the Baker collection, Ranston, Dorset, now at Hinton Ampner (the National Trust), according to a Witt library photograph mount), where the figure of Antony, who wears a plumed helmet which casts a shadow over his face and neck, corresponds closely to the figure of Alexander in this picture.
The style of this picture is comparable to Casali's Cleopatra's Banquet (formerly in the Baker collection, Ranston, Dorset, now at Hinton Ampner (the National Trust), according to a Witt library photograph mount), where the figure of Antony, who wears a plumed helmet which casts a shadow over his face and neck, corresponds closely to the figure of Alexander in this picture.