Alexander the Great Bust

No ruler before or since has been depicted in sculpture as often as Alexander the Great. From the workshop of Lysippus — the only sculptor he allowed to portray him — came the canonical image of the conqueror: the upward gaze, the leonine mane, the eternal youth. Cities renamed themselves after him; rulers from Rome to the Renaissance wore his likeness as a sign of legitimate ambition. This bust belongs to a portrait tradition more than two thousand years old and still unequalled in influence.