Lysippos - Lysippos and Alexander

Lysippos and Alexander

During his lifetime, Lysippos was personal sculptor to Alexander the Great; indeed, he was the only artist whom the conqueror saw fit to represent him. A recently-discovered epigram of Macedonian Poseidippus, in the anthology represented in the Milan Papyrus, takes as its inspiration a bronze portrait of Alexander:

Lysippos, Sicyonian sculptor, daring hand, learned artisan,

your bronze statue has the look of fire in its eyes,

that one you made in the form of Alexander. The Persians deserve

no blame. We forgive cattle for fleeing a lion.

Lysippus has been credited with the stock representation of an inspired, godlike Alexander with tousled hair and lips parted, looking upward. One fine example, an early Imperial Roman copy found at Tivoli, is conserved at the Louvre.