Italian school, ca. 1750.

Italian school, ca. 1750.
Free version of the "Dying Alexander".
Carved marble bust.
Later marble pedestal.
Presents restorations: headdress, tip of the nose, earlobe, nipple.
Measurements: 27 x 20 x 13 cm; 11 x 12,5 x 12,5 cm (pedestal).

This free version of the "Dying Alexander", realized in the middle of the 18th century in Italian workshops, constitutes a singular and expressive reworking of a famous Hellenistic motif: the agonizing portrait of the Macedonian conqueror on his deathbed. Executed in carved marble with remarkable virtuosity, this small-format bust, probably conceived as a cabinet piece, takes up a classical model with interpretative freedom, distancing itself from canonical idealization to emphasize a deep humanity.

Stylistically located between late baroque and incipient neoclassicism, this bust reflects the 18th century sensibility towards the heroic and the human. The countenance, far from the idealized serenity of classical models, presents a pathos typical of the period: the half-open lips reveal not only the line of the upper teeth, as in the original, but also the tongue insinuated inside the mouth, an anatomical addition that intensifies the realism. It takes up the serpentine composition from the Hellenistic model, although tilting the head to the opposite side. The eyes, carved with precision, look upwards, emulating Alexander's heroic rapture, although the features are more portrait-like and truthful. The long, wavy hair, pulled back, also differs from the classical canon that presented it in loose locks and animated ringlets around the face. The frown is furrowed with tension, as in the original, giving the face a sorrowful concentration. The marble is skillfully worked, especially in the modeling of the face and the treatment of the hair. Stylistically located between late baroque and incipient neoclassicism, this bust reflects the sensitivity of the eighteenth century towards the heroic and the human.

The so-called "Alessandro morente", discovered in Rome in the early 16th century and preserved in the Galleria degli Uffizi (Florence), was originally attributed to Lysippus but over time the attribution was called into question. It was of enormous influence during the Cinquecento and Baroque periods. The gaze to the sky and the upward spiral movement (the so-called serpentinata or "curve of beauty") were repeatedly imitated: Michelangelo's Dying Slave, Raphael's Apollo of Parnassus, Titian's Assumption of the Virgin and other examples in Guido Reni, Domenichino or Bernini, until it became an archetype for depictions of martyred saints and ecstatic madonnas.