The king is here represented, one
would guess, at the age of thirty or thereabouts. Now as he was
absent from Europe from the age of twenty-two until his death at
Babylon at the age of thirty-three (323 B.C.), it would seem
likely that Lysippus, or whoever the sculptor was, based his
portrait upon likenesses taken some years earlier. Consequently,
although portraiture in the age of Alexander had become
prevailingly realistic, it would be unsafe to regard this head as
a conspicuous example of the new tendency. The artist probably
aimed to present a recognizable likeness and at the same time to
give a worthy expression to the great conqueror's qualities of
character. If the latter object does not seem to have been
attained, one is free to lay the blame upon the copyist and time.
CHAPTER X.
THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD OF GREEK SCULPTURE. 323-146 B.C.
The reign of Alexander began a new era in Greek history, an era in
which the great fact was the dissemination of Greek culture over
wide regions to which it had been alien.
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