Getty Museum

Statuette of Alexander the Great

Date

2nd century B.C.

Medium

Marble

Culture

East Greek

Department

Sculpture

Institution

Getty Museum

Ancient authors record that Alexander the Great was so pleased with the portraits of himself that were created by Lysippos that he decreed no other sculptor would make his image. Although this statement is probably exaggerated, Lysippos did make some of the most powerful and lasting images of Alexander. It also shows that Alexander understood the propagandistic importance of his image and the need to control it. This broken statuette, carved in the 100s B.C., is a small-scale variant of a statue made in the 320s B.C. by Lysippos. The "Alexander with a Lance" portrayed the king armed and naked, similar to the great heroes of Greek mythology, such as Achilles, with whom Alexander identified. The ruler stands with his weight on one leg, his right arm extended and holding a spear, the left hanging down at his side. This statuette represents one of the many surviving posthumous images of Alexander, which continued to be made well into the Roman period. It may have been a private devotional image related to the worship of Alexander as a god.

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