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Figure

Decorative Art

F54.37

Marble Madonna (Virgin Mary) and child

Figure

Decorative Art

F54.70

Bronze statuette of a Roman soldier / Mars

Engraving

Antiquities

E37.10

Relief of royal princess. Alabaster building fragment from Akhenaten's capital at Tell el-Amarna

Alexander the Great succeeded his father as king of Macedonia and when he was only twenty he unified and led a League of Greek city states in a war against the Persian Empire. He conquered a vast empire spreading Greek civilisation to Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Iraq, Iran (Persia), Afghanistan and northwest India, where the influence of Greek art is still evident. Alexander the Great died in 323 BC, aged only 32 or 33, so his image is always of a young man. This marble head is a rare portrait of Alexander from the Persian part of his empire (Parthian Kish). It is not known what sort of monument the portrait decorated. Alexander's image was repeatedly changed into the current style of the time, and this practice allows us to date this head to about 200 BC. The upswept hair and the turn of the head were typical of his portraits. Marble. Approximately 200 BC

Figurine

Antiquities

E48.218

This head of a woman was once believed to be part of a figure from one of the sculptured frieze panels decorating the Parthenon on the Acropolis in Athens. It is now recognised that the type of marble and the style of carving indicate a different origin. The current thought is that this head may be a later Roman copy from the late 1 st century BC or early 1 st century AD.