Medallion

[Alexias]

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An Alexander medallion I bought on Ebay recently, believed to be a 19th century tourist souvenir of the Grand Tour. The reverse is blank.

[hiphys]

Very nice: it seems from a Renaissance pattern (Verrocchio?).

[Taphoi]

The medallion is an interesting example of the belief that the profile portrait of Athena on the gold staters minted by Alexander is a portrait of the king. This belief was prominent between about the Renaissance and the 18th century. It influenced Charles le Brun, for example. I am not sure that it persisted into the 19th century, so perhaps the medallion is a little older than believed. Or maybe it was based on an older image that was in turn based on the stater.
Best wishes,
Andrew

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[agesilaos]

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The stater's influence reached as far as real helmets; which came first, the art or the reality is pretty moot, but I think that they misunderstood the Corinthian helmet and made it a cap. In the same era pike blocks were becoming general in armies (early 16th Century). Thee was alot of interplay but I think that the stater's influence was at one remove and that the painters generally copied contemporary military equipment, but that had been influenced by the renascent interest in all things classical.

There are some Renaissance fake coins which are now collected in their own right and they are of a much higher artistic merit; not that I wish to denigrate your piece, I think it is as described, a nineteenth century souvenir, but based on renaissance portraits, as Taphoi says. Sometimes these mass produced pieces gain in value as they do not survive in great numbers, nice buy

[Alexias]

It was only cheap, and I did think it looked more 18th than 19th century, but maybe it's early 19th cent. Interestingly it seems to have a horse and rider on the helmet (or possibly a Pegasus), but in looking for other examples all I could find was a dragon/griffin http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/c ... 0&partId=1 I couldn't find the one I think hiphys was referring to.

[hiphys]

I was referring to a work attributed to Andrea del Verrocchio (sculptor and painter, teacher of Leonardo da Vinci). I found two relief with the head of Alexander attributed to him: the first (and more famous) is shown here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File° ... °2C_01.JPG
It is now in Washington (DC) National Gallery of Art.
Another relief, also attributed to the same artist (or some pupil of his) is shown here:
http://WahooArt.com/Art.nsf/O/8Y3LEX/$F ... eat-2-.JPG
The helmet of Alexander in these two portraits is very similar to the one Agesilaos posted previously!