What can we take from The Mosaic
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xxx
Re: What can we take from The Mosaic
The white ear thing is from Andrew Stewart's coverage of the mosaic. He also mentions that you can see Alexander's helmet on the ground.
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xxx
Re: What can we take from The Mosaic
I think there's two references to him being blonde - in Faces of Power where Stewart gathers all the written descriptions of the King. I guess I will have to go look up that reference again - I think I posted it on the Forum already though.
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Taphoi
Re: What can we take from The Mosaic
The colour for Alexander's hair in Aelian is "xanthos", which is any of a range of shades of yellow from pale or golden yellow through to chestnut or auburn.The only other ancient reference I know (apart that is from the ambiguous Plutarch) with a clear indication of hair colour is in the Alexander Romance, which says Alexander had hair like a lion's: "ut comae sunt leoninae" in Julius Valerius.Both the fresco in the Insula Occidentalis and the House of the Faun mosaic from Pompeii are consistent with dark blond. Both are likely to be based on Greek paintings almost contemporary with Alexander.
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marcus
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Re: What can we take from The Mosaic
Thanks, Andrew. I was pretty sure that nowhere specifically said 'blond', and I was as sure that 'fair' could mean a wide range of hues!I wonder how far the portrayal of Alexander as 'blond' throughout history (which I think is much more recent, anyway - he certainly wasn't exclusively thought of as being that way in the Renaissance, judging from Veronese's painting, for starters!) is due to our imposition of the classic Northern European 'hero type'. If Aelian said 'fair', then many people would have assumed 'blond'. (I'm no great expert on Joseph Campbell, but I bet he'd have had something to say about it!)All the bestMarcus
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Taphoi
Re: What can we take from The Mosaic
Actually, however, the evidence I've mentioned is quite good to the effect that Alexander was dark blond. For example, the Alexander Romance is an excellent source on this particular point, because it was almost certainly compiled by a resident of Alexandria in the early 3rd century AD. There would have been highly authentic statues of Alexander in practically every street of the city at that time. Ancient public statues were naturalistically coloured. The Alexander Romance is telling us that Alexander's hair was very like a lion's mane in those statues. We know this is true from the point of view of its general shape. The Alexander Romance tends to confirm that it was true of the colour as well. The Pompeii mosaic and fresco are consistent with this, but represent an independent tradition. Aelian is a third independent tradition and although "xanthos" is not a very specific term, dark blond would be the central range of its meaning.
Remember that the Alexander mosaic is often reproduced at high contrast to bring out the details, which makes Alexander's hair look much darker than the artist intended. If you look at a good reproduction (e.g. cover of History Today in July), you will see that the light strands are a blondish colour and that most of the rest is light brown with only about 10% black tesserae to depict deep shadows. The mosaic has a strong claim to being a reproduction of a famous Greek painting by an artist who had seen Alexander. Conversely, I don't know of any ancient evidence that Alexander's hair was dark or black.
Finally, we should recall that the ethnicity of Northern Greece was predominantly Doric, amongst whom blondish hair was not unusual.
Remember that the Alexander mosaic is often reproduced at high contrast to bring out the details, which makes Alexander's hair look much darker than the artist intended. If you look at a good reproduction (e.g. cover of History Today in July), you will see that the light strands are a blondish colour and that most of the rest is light brown with only about 10% black tesserae to depict deep shadows. The mosaic has a strong claim to being a reproduction of a famous Greek painting by an artist who had seen Alexander. Conversely, I don't know of any ancient evidence that Alexander's hair was dark or black.
Finally, we should recall that the ethnicity of Northern Greece was predominantly Doric, amongst whom blondish hair was not unusual.
Re: What can we take from The Mosaic
Hello Andrew:You've used the fact that there would have been many visible and authentic statues of Alexander to validate the description of Alexander in the Romance.
I'm curious as to what you think of the description given in Alexander's Itinerary. Though written a century later or thereabouts, the writer would also surely have seen multiple statues of Alexander even if he lived in Rome - many of those statues had been stolen from Greece, Macedonia, and elsewhere. Yet the description of Alexander in the Itinerary says, amongst other things, "He himself was partly masked with his pointed beard; the rest of his face was clean-shaven".Now where on earth did the beard come from? :-)Best regards,Linda Ann
I'm curious as to what you think of the description given in Alexander's Itinerary. Though written a century later or thereabouts, the writer would also surely have seen multiple statues of Alexander even if he lived in Rome - many of those statues had been stolen from Greece, Macedonia, and elsewhere. Yet the description of Alexander in the Itinerary says, amongst other things, "He himself was partly masked with his pointed beard; the rest of his face was clean-shaven".Now where on earth did the beard come from? :-)Best regards,Linda Ann
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Taphoi
Re: What can we take from The Mosaic
Hi Linda Ann,
The Itinerarium Alexandri is Latin, which suggests the Western Roman Empire, and 4th century, which means after the takeover by the Christians. Both these things mitigate against its author having seen public statues of Alexander.
It seems to use Arrian as a source, which suggests Greek-Latin transliteration by its author and which might have introduced some errors of comprehension. I do not have the original Latin to hand right now, but I would wonder how specific the phrase "pointed beard" is? We know that Alexander probably wore sideburns, at least when on campaign. Although the modern understanding of "pointed beard" would place it on the chin, the Latin of the Intinerary may admit the interpretation that it refers to sideburns ending in a point, especially since it says "partly masked" rather than just "masked" and notes that the rest of his face was clean-shaven. Alternatively, the author of the Itinerary may have misunderstood a Greek reference to sideburns in one of his sources. Clearly, it is quite wrong to suggest that Alexander ever wore a pointed beard on his chin! However, Alexander was shown wearing a beard in some medieval manuscripts, especially in the east, and also on some Italian kraters made during his campaigns (because the artists were complying with tradition and didn't know any better).
The Itinerarium Alexandri is Latin, which suggests the Western Roman Empire, and 4th century, which means after the takeover by the Christians. Both these things mitigate against its author having seen public statues of Alexander.
It seems to use Arrian as a source, which suggests Greek-Latin transliteration by its author and which might have introduced some errors of comprehension. I do not have the original Latin to hand right now, but I would wonder how specific the phrase "pointed beard" is? We know that Alexander probably wore sideburns, at least when on campaign. Although the modern understanding of "pointed beard" would place it on the chin, the Latin of the Intinerary may admit the interpretation that it refers to sideburns ending in a point, especially since it says "partly masked" rather than just "masked" and notes that the rest of his face was clean-shaven. Alternatively, the author of the Itinerary may have misunderstood a Greek reference to sideburns in one of his sources. Clearly, it is quite wrong to suggest that Alexander ever wore a pointed beard on his chin! However, Alexander was shown wearing a beard in some medieval manuscripts, especially in the east, and also on some Italian kraters made during his campaigns (because the artists were complying with tradition and didn't know any better).
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Thompson
Re: What can we take from The Mosaic
I have only one question,please give
me anybody the answer. Thank you.
The question is :have you someone any
pictures of brooch which have Alexander
the Great.He got the brooch before the
weding with Roxane.
me anybody the answer. Thank you.
The question is :have you someone any
pictures of brooch which have Alexander
the Great.He got the brooch before the
weding with Roxane.
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Sporadic visitor
Re: What can we take from The Mosaic
Hello,
I see that this is an old thread but I wish however to give my opinion.
Though physical anthropology proved that dorian & macedonians were alipine-dinaric therefor predominantly brunets, bolndish hair is not inexistent neither among ythem (blonsish occurs as far as middle east and even among indics). So is not impossible that Alexander's hair had been blondish. I've been comparing many pics of alexander's mozaic with different enlightment and the general impression they gave me was rather of a medium brown.Light strands appear also but that might be just reflections given by the natural light (a even a dark brown hair can produce blondish reflects and a raven black hair can produce reddish reflects).
I would not say that he looks dark haired, but I would not say he looks blond neither (not blond in the nordic sense of the term, or bleached blond as appears Collin Farrell's in O. Stone's movie)..
Is true that ruddy complection is usually accompained with very fair hair but exeptions may occur. That's why manyp eople associated him with fair hair becuase of Plutarchs depiction.But colour significance in latin and ancient greek remains obscure and abiguous yet.I'll take another exemple;that of roman emperor Augustus in Suetonius biography; in an english translation says that he was golden haired and blue eyed.Other translation says bright eyed isof blue.A french translation says that he was bright eyed and about his hair "tirant sur le blond" (i.e. woth a [slight]tendency to blond-blondish).However all translation agree that his complection was between dark and fair...wich means that as well as a darkish complection might be accompained with blondish hair, a ruddy complection could perfectly accompainde with darkish hair...
I see that this is an old thread but I wish however to give my opinion.
Though physical anthropology proved that dorian & macedonians were alipine-dinaric therefor predominantly brunets, bolndish hair is not inexistent neither among ythem (blonsish occurs as far as middle east and even among indics). So is not impossible that Alexander's hair had been blondish. I've been comparing many pics of alexander's mozaic with different enlightment and the general impression they gave me was rather of a medium brown.Light strands appear also but that might be just reflections given by the natural light (a even a dark brown hair can produce blondish reflects and a raven black hair can produce reddish reflects).
I would not say that he looks dark haired, but I would not say he looks blond neither (not blond in the nordic sense of the term, or bleached blond as appears Collin Farrell's in O. Stone's movie)..
Is true that ruddy complection is usually accompained with very fair hair but exeptions may occur. That's why manyp eople associated him with fair hair becuase of Plutarchs depiction.But colour significance in latin and ancient greek remains obscure and abiguous yet.I'll take another exemple;that of roman emperor Augustus in Suetonius biography; in an english translation says that he was golden haired and blue eyed.Other translation says bright eyed isof blue.A french translation says that he was bright eyed and about his hair "tirant sur le blond" (i.e. woth a [slight]tendency to blond-blondish).However all translation agree that his complection was between dark and fair...wich means that as well as a darkish complection might be accompained with blondish hair, a ruddy complection could perfectly accompainde with darkish hair...