An exceptional Alexander Frieze

Honestly, I am not too keen on statues, paintings or other depictions of Alexander other than those from the Greek and Hellenistic era. I obviously have to include the Roman copies because more often than not, the Greek originals no longer exist.

Over the centuries, Alexander enjoyed many admirers. Scores of sculptors and painters have tried their best to produce a portrait of Alexander befitting the great king, placing him in their own historical context. It is precisely that kind of setting that I often find awkward.

Paintings by Charles le Brun (Entry into Babylon, Alexander and Porus, the Battle of Arbela, etc.), Peter-Paul Rubens (Roxane), Paolo Veronese (The family of Darius before Alexander), Jacques-Louis David and Tieopolo (Alexander and Campaspe in the studio of Apelles) are all beautiful representations. Still, for me, those pictures don’t take me back to the very days of Alexander. The same happens with most of the stone and marble renditions of the conqueror by great artists like Verrocchio or Andrea della Robbia, as well as the portraits on cameos and medallions.

Today, I am, however, making an exception for this Alexander frieze displayed on the walls of the cafeteria at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston, UK. It is a plaster copy of a work by the Danish artist Bertel Thorvaldsen. 

The name Thorvaldsen probably doesn’t ring a bell with most of us, but in the 19th century, he was one of the highly successful artists. After his studies at the Copenhagen Academy, he went to Rome, where his enthusiasm for classical sculpture fired his imagination. 

Just like the copy we find in Preston, the original Alexander Frieze was also made of plaster. It was actually commissioned in 1812 to celebrate Napoleon’s entry into Rome. It took Thorvaldsen three months to accomplish this masterpiece. Yet, Napoleon never showed up in Rome, and the frieze remained at the Palazzo Quirinale. 

However, the scene was so inspiring that two other versions were created in marble. One for Count Sommariva, who lived near Lake Como in Italy, and one for the Palace of Christianborg in Copenhagen. Several plaster casts were made during Thorvaldsen’s lifetime and also afterwards. The Preston copy arrived in England in 1862 to celebrate Danish art at the International Exhibition in London. The Victoria and Albert Museum offered this piece of art to the Harris Museum and Art Gallery in Preston in 1987.

The scene of the frieze loosely interprets the triumphant entry of Alexander the Great into Babylon in 331 BC. Basically, the frieze starts from two sides. One is showing the army led by Alexander in a chariot, and the other the citizens of Babylon led by the goddess of peace holding an olive branch. 

The frieze is a magnificent piece of art, and I feel it deserves a better setting than a cafeteria, even if it fits the neo-classical style of the building! Thorvaldsen truly understood the essence of Greek art, or rather Hellenistic art, at its apotheosis. It is not surprising to learn that the piece has been copied so many times. Napoleon clearly did not realize what he missed...

The frieze closely reflects the frieze of the Parthenon with its successive figures on horseback and their cloaks bulging in the wind. I love the lively details the artist managed to incorporate. There is this cute looking elephant carrying the trophies of war taken from the Persians. Or the Babylonian flower girls and musicians, and the chained lions. I am staring in awe at the knelt figure dragging an altar because it reminds me of a similar artifact I encountered at the Museum of Morgantina in Sicily. That specific altar from the 3rd century BC was made of silver and was found at the House of the wealthy Eupolemos, as part of an extraordinary hoard of silverware (see: Haggling over the silver hoard of Morgantina). 

I secretly wonder whether Alexander carried a similar altar with him on his campaigns. We may never know for sure, but it certainly is not impossible.

[Pictures are reproduced with the courtesy of Jim Cleary]