Possible Alexander

[Alexias]

On a recent visit to Hever Castle in Kent, England - famous as the home of Anne Boleyn - I found this in the Italian Gardens. Could it be a bust of Alexander? It was made of marble, the hair is too long to be a Roman (though it might be a Roman bust), and there was a hint of an anastole hairstyle. A crude Alexander? It wouldn't have been anything to do with the Boleyns but would have been acquired by the Astors in the early part of the 20th century.

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[hiphys]

Hi Alexias, yes, it is a bust of Alexander, and I think it is very similar to the one found in Herculaneum, and now, according to Joaquìn Montero, The Legacy of Alexander the Great, vol. I, University Press of the South 2023, p. 251, placed in Blenheim Palace Oxfordshire, England. The main difference is the cuirass: in your sculpture is absent, in the one from Herculaneum is well evident. Unfortunately I cannot post the picture here.

[Alexias]

Hi, Hyphis, thank you! I hope they don't leave it out all year round as the frost and rain would damage it badly.

Anyway, here is the Blenheim head.

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System1988 told me when I originally posted a picture of this bust several years ago that it has a Roman cuirass, so head and bust may not belong together.

[hiphys]

The 'Alexander' in Hever Castle is, of course, patched up (perhaps the artist was bad, or the purchaser stingy!) and the Blenheim one appear to be carried out much better. As to the cuirass, it has a Gorgon like the one on the well-known Alexander's mosaic of Pompei (now at Naples' Archaeological Museum), so it imitates an original Greek one.