The Sculpture Museum - Catalog - Page 72
roman, 18th century
16
Bust of Alexander the Great (356–323 bc)
After the Antique
White marble
59 cm (23 ¼ in.) high
fig. 1
Roman, Hadrianic period (117-138 ad),
Alexander the Great, marble, 58.3 cm high
Rome, Musei Capitolini
This striking marble bust has traditionally been understood to represent Alexander
the Great, the man who almost single-handedly changed the nature of the ancient
world in little more than a decade. The legendary king, commander, politician,
scholar and explorer founded over 70 cities and created an empire that stretched
across three continents and covered around two million square miles. At the age
of just 25 he became king of Macedonia, leader of the Greeks, overlord of Asia
Minor, Pharaoh of Egypt and Great King of Persia.
The present work originates from Rome, during the period when a close circle
of cultural elites in Rome, such as J.J.Winckelmann and Cardinal Albani, laid
the foundations for the formation and dissemination of the Neoclassical style in
Western art through their insatiable antiquarian interest in the art of the ancients
and their subsequent patronage of contemporary works after the Antique from
Roman sculptors such as Bartolommeo Cavaceppi (1716–1799).
This white marble bust of Alexander in his conquering prime is modelled
after the almost identical bust of the same subject in Rome’s Capitoline Museums
(fig. 1). The bust is mentioned several times in the writings of J.J.Winckelmann,
who was certain that the Capitoline bust was a portrait of Alexander. It has been
said to originate from the reign of the Emperor Hadrian because the style and
technique can be so closely compared to those of the Apollo Belvedere, which is
generally accepted to date from c. 120–40 ad.
The fame of the sculpture in the eighteenth century was such that a number of
important marble versions were made of it. The great Roman workshops, like that
of Bartolomeo Cavaceppi, are known to have owned copies of the Capitoline bust
and as a result, casts of the sculpture were widely circulated. One of these casts
was acquired in 1752 by M. Brettingham and installed to great acclaim at
Holkham Hall.
related literature
R. M. Picozzi, ‘Testa di Alessandro-Helios’ in Il Settecento a Roma, Milano, 2005, p. 289
M. Picozzi, ‘Testa di Alessandro-Helios’ in Musei Capitolini: Le Sculture del Palazzo Nuovo,
Rome, 2010, p. 496
C. Picon, Bartolomeo Cavaceppi: Eighteenth- century restorations of ancient marble sculpture
from English private collections, exh. cat., The Clarendon Gallery, London, 1983
