Ivory bust

[Athanasios]

Interesting, Jan.I was intrigued by the use of ivory [in general], which was reinforced after my trip to the Nubian Museum in Aswan, Egypt, last week. The Nubians were basically trading between the Egyptians and sub-saharan Africans. The finds in the region are indeed most impressive, somewhat overshadowed by the fact that such a rich area of Nubia has since been submerged by Lake Nasser.The more we delve into the past the more we realise that boundaries between peoples were fluid and transitional.Regards,
Atha

[jan]

How wonderful about your trip to Egypt. Ivory is such a precious and expensive product in this time period as it may have been then. The busts that were made from ivory are only about an inch long, so it is rather incredible that they were photographed to see the profile even, but its likeness caught my attention. Just simply something to ponder, as I do not imagine that either the portrait or the bust are true likenesses of the subjects but nonetheless, the chin, the nose, and the forehead are nearly identical in appearance! Truly astounding.

[agesilaos]

Le Brun will have been influenced by statuary representations of Alexander and indeed numismatic ones, interest in these antiquities was rife in 17/18 Century France abd this will explain the similarities. Rulers frequently flatter themselves by supposing themselves the image of former great men.

[jan]

HI Karl, I agree that this is probably so, as that was my first thought too. Until I realized that this painting of The Resurrection of Christ which has the probably an inch or so size of Louis's head too could not have been seen by LeBrun as it was not discovered until this century. That is the only reason that I mentioned it, as I thought about it, since there are so many different and varied versions of busts and profiles of Alexander also. The peculiarity is that the two appear identical, and I just thought I would throw it out to others to contemplate rather than keeping it all to myself. I have always thought that it was an idealized version of Louis XIV and was always impressed with it, but had no idea that it bore such a resemblance to Alexander until I began thinking about it and decided to put the two side by side. I just think it coincidence, but terribly Ripley's believe it or not type coincidence!