Alexander the Great
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Object Label
Alexander conquered Egypt in 332 B.C.E. He fostered a connection between Greek and indigenous Egyptian cultures. His successors promoted Egyptian religion, including the making of animal mummies.
This posthumous statue was carved from an Egyptian stone in the Greek style that emphasizes motion by the twist of the head and neck.
Caption
Alexander the Great, 100 B.C.E. – 100 C.E.. Marble, 3 1/2 x 2 x 1 1/2 in. (8.9 x 5.1 x 3.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 54.162. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum (Gavin Ashworth, photographer), 54.162_edited_Gavin_Ashworth_photograph.jpg)
Title
Alexander the Great
Date
100 B.C.E. – 100 C.E.
Period
Late Period to Roman Period
Geography
Reportedly from: Egypt
Medium
Marble
Classification
Dimensions
3 1/2 x 2 x 1 1/2 in. (8.9 x 5.1 x 3.8 cm)
Credit Line
Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
Accession Number
54.162
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Frequent Art Questions
Who is the person in the middle?
That's Alexander! Alexander the Great was the king of Macedonia, and a very successful general. He was so, well, great, that by the age of 24 he managed to conquer most of the known world! Starting from the Greek homeland, he conquered Egypt, Persia, Babylon and made it all the way to India, all in just a few years. He united the known world in a single empire, and people were crazy about him in the way today we like pop stars. Images of Alexander, like this figurine showing him at about 20 years old, twisting his body, caught mid-action, his hair flying everywhere, are markedly different from earlier Greek art, which is much more restrained.
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