Alexander the Great

c. 1483/1485

Set within a gold frame, the head and chest of a young man wearing an ornate helmet and armor, facing our right in profile, is carved in relief from white marble in this vertical panel. The man has a long nose, smooth cheeks, closed bow lips, and a snub chin. Curls burst from beneath his helmet, which sweeps from up over his forehead down to the back of his neck. The lifted visor curves up and out past his nose, and is decorated with vines and flowers. The crown of the helmet spirals like a snail shell over the man’s head, and a dragon perches along the top. The dragon has a dog’s head, a scaled body, wings like a bat, a serpent-like tail, and a section of its long neck has been broken off. Two crimped ribbons flutter up and behind the man’s head from the back of the helmet, where it covers his neck. His chest is covered to his neck with a highly ornamented breast plate. At the front of the chest, an adult face with brows furrowed and mouth wide open is flanked by wings. The shoulder we can see is covered with a medallion showing a nude woman holding a cornucopia and a merman. Beneath the medallion, a row of six faces, each on its own narrow panel, fan out over the man’s upper arm. Scrolling vines, leaves, and flowers fill the remaining space around the medallion and winged head. A few pale, parchment-white veins run through the surface of the marble. The panel sits on a shallow, trapezoidal ledge and is framed in a stepped gold frame on the remaining three sides.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.
On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 9

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    marble

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Therese K. Straus

  • Dimensions

    overall: 55.9 x 36.7 cm (22 x 14 7/16 in.)
    framed: 88.9 x 71.8 x 8.6 cm (35 x 28 1/4 x 3 3/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1956.2.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Possibly Hungarian private collection.[1] Unknown collection, Vienna, in 1922.[2] (E. & A. Silberman, Vienna).[3] (Jacques Seligmann et Cie., Paris and New York) by January 1927;[4] sold 28 December 1927 to Therese K. [Mrs. Herbert N.] Straus, New York; gift 1956 to NGA.
[1] No direct documentation has been found. The Hungarian collection is first mentioned by Leo Planiscig, “Andrea del Verrocchios Alexander Relief,” Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, n.s. VII (1933): 89-96. Hanns Swarzenski, in a report inscribed 1/31/1945, refers to the “lack of history before 1923. Mysterious provenance in Hungary. Sponsorship in the first instance by a Hungarian dealer..." A slightly later report by Charles Seymour quotes Swarzenski as commenting that “ the dealer Silberman, an Hungarian himself, told me that he discovered the piece walled in in an Hungarian castle.” (copies, NGA curatorial files).
[2] In a letter dated 13 September 1927, Wilhelm von Bode wrote to the dealer Seligmann that in 1922 the relief was in Vienna; in that year Bode had received, through Prof. Suida in Vienna, a photograph of it with the upper corners broken off. (Jacques Seligmann et. Cie Papers, Archives of American Art, Box no. 210/folder 5, copies NGA curatorial files). The Viennese location may refer to possession by the dealers E. & A. Silberman. See note 1.
[3] After the relief was purchased by Mrs. Straus, she was contacted by A. Silberman, who referred to the relief as having been in his firm’s possession (letter dated 15 January 1938, Jacques Seligmann et. Cie Papers, Archives of American Art, Box no. 210/folder 5, copies NGA curatorial files). See note 1.
[4] Correspondence concerning the relief between Seligmann and Soloman Reinach from January 1927 (Jacques Seligmann et. Cie Papers, Archives of American Art, Box no. 210/folder 5, copies NGA curatorial files).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1938

  • Italian Sculpture, 1250-1500, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1938, no. 54.

1980

  • Alexander the Great: History and Legend in Art, Archeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Greece, 1980.

  • The Search for Alexander, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco; New Orleans Museum of Art, 1980-1982, no. 21 in Supplement II to catalogue.

1998

  • Heroic Armor of the Italian Renaissance: Filippo Negroli and his Contemporaries, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1998-1999, no. 10, repro.

1999

  • Renaissance Florence: The Art of the 1470s, The National Gallery, London, 1999-2000, no. 61, repro., pp. 256, 274, 278, 282.

2004

  • Verrocchio's David Restored: A Renaissance Bronze from the National Museum of the Bargello, Florence, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2004, fig. 12 (p. 71), not shown at two earlier venues in Florence and Atlanta.

2009

  • Leonardo da Vinci and the Art of Sculpture, High Museum of Art, Atlanta; The J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 2009-2010, repro. pl. 19 (shown only in Atlanta).

2013

  • Mattia Corvino e Firenze: Arte e Umanesimo alla Corte del Re di Ungheria [Matthias Corvinus and Florence: Art and Humanism in the court of the King of Hungary], Museo di San Marco, Florence, 2013-2014, no. 39, repro.

2015

  • Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519: The Design of the World, Palazzo Reale, Milan, 2015, no. IV.1.2, repro.

2019

  • Verrocchio: Sculptor and Painter of Renaissance Florence, Palazzo Strozzi and Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence (as Verrocchio: Master of Leonardo); National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2019-2020, Florence catalogue, no. 2.6, repro; Washington catalogue, no. 9, repro.

Bibliography

1892

  • Bode, Wilhelm von. Denkmäler der Renaissance-Sculptur in Italien. 17 vols. Munich, 1892-1904: 12:pl. 147.

1907

  • Dussler, Luitpold. “Verrocchio, Andrea del.” In Thieme-Becker. 37 vols. Leipzig, 1907-1950: 34(1939):292-298, esp. 294 and 296.

1921

  • MacLagan, Eric. "A Stucco After Verrocchio." Burlington Magazine 39, n. 222 (September 1921): 131.

1930

  • Möller, Emil. “Leonardo e il Verrocchio. Quattro rilievi di capitani antichi lavorati per Re Mattia Corvino.” Raccolta vinciana XIV (1930/34): 3-38, esp. 26-33; repro.

1932

  • Wilder, Elizabeth. "The Unfinished Monument by Andrea del Verrocchio to the Cardinal Niccolò Forteguerri at Pistoia." Studies in the history and criticism of sculpture 7. Northampton, MA, 1932: 71.

  • "Dr Emil Möller; 'Beitrage zu Leonardo da Vinci als Plastiker und sein Verhältnis zu Verrocchio'." Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz vol. 4, no. 2/3 (January-July 1933): 138-139.

1933

  • Planiscig, Leo. “Andrea del Verrocchios Alexander Relief.” Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, n.s. VII (1933): 89-96, esp. 94-95, repro. plate VI.

1934

  • Ricci, Seymour de. “Une sculpture inconnue de Verrocchio.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts s. 6, XI (1934): 244-245, repro.

  • Soulier, Gustave. “Une sculpture inconnue de Verrocchio.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts s. 6, XI (1934): 384.

1935

  • "Leonardo e il Verrocchio. By E. Möller." Burlington Magazine vol. 67 n. 391 (October 1935): 186.

1936

  • Grotemeyer, Paul. “Andrea del Verrocchio.” Pantheon 17 (1936): 108-115, esp. 110, 113, repro.

1938

  • Art Digest 12 (15 January 1938): 5, repro.

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. “Sculpture of the Early Renaissance Shown at Detroit.” Art News 36 (15 January 1938): 14-15, repro.

  • Middeldorf, Ulrich. “Die Ausstellung italienischer Renaissanceskulptur in Detroit.” Pantheon 22 (October 1938): 315-318. (Reprinted in Raccolta di scritti: that is, Collected Writings. 3 vols. Florence, 1979-1981: 1:335-339).

1939

  • Sherman, Frederic Fairchild. “Verrocchio’s Profile of Alexander the Great [sonnet].” Art in America 27, n. 2 (April 1939): 76-77, repro.

  • "Verrocchio, Andrea del." In Masterpieces of Art. New York World's Fair (May-October 1939): 214, cat. 431.

1941

  • Planiscig, Leo. Andrea del Verrocchio. Vienna, 1941: esp. 26-28, 51-52, n. 37, repro. fig. 37.

  • Valentiner, Wilhelm R. “On Leonardo’s Relation to Verrocchio.” Art Quarterly IV (1941): 2-31, repro. [Republished with change in Valentiner, Wilhelm R. Studies of Italian Renaissance Sculpture. London, 1950: 113-133, repro.]

1950

  • Popham, A. E., and Pouncey, Philip. Italian Drawings in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries. London, 1950: 57-58.

1957

  • De la Coste-Messelière, M. G. “Les medaillons historiques de Gaillon au Musée du Louvre et à l’École des Beaux-Arts.” Revue des Arts 7 (1957): 65-70, esp. 68-69, repro.

1958

  • Pope-Hennessy, John. Italian Renaissance Sculpture. London, 1958: 38, 311.

1961

  • Seligman, Germain. Merchants of Art: 1880-1960, Eighty Years of Professional Collecting. New York, 1961: repro. pl. 59.

1962

  • Vasari, Giorgio. Le vite de’ piu eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori. 9 vols. Milan, 1962-1966: 3(1963):225 n. 3.

1963

  • Lenkey, Susan V. An unknown Leonardo self-portrait: revision of the authorship of the Alexander the Great Relief in the National Gallery of Art. Stanford, 1963: 4-23, fig. 1.

  • Meller, Peter. “Physiognomical Theory in Renaissance Heroic Portraits.” In Millard Meiss and Richard Krautheimer, eds. Studies in Western Art. Acts of the Twentieth International Congress of the History of Art. 3 vols., Princeton, 1963; 2: 53-69, esp. 62 n. 29.

  • Stites, Raymond S. "Leonardo Sculture e il busto di Giuliano de' Medici del Verrocchio, 1." Critica d'Arte anno X, no. 56: 5, fig. 5.

1964

  • Pope-Hennessy, John, assisted by Ronald Lightbown. Catalogue of Italian Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum. 3 vols. London, 1964: 1:175-176.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 173, as by Verrocchio.

1966

  • Balogh, Jolán. A müvészet Mátyás király udvarában. 2 vols. Budapest, 1966: I: 514 ff.

  • Busignani, Alberto. Verrocchio. Florence, 1966: 27.

  • Covi, Dario. “Four new documents concerning Andrea del Verrocchio.” The Art Bulletin 48, n. 1 (March 1966): 97-103, esp. 100.

1967

  • Bertini, Aldo. “Verrocchio.” Encyclopedia of World Art. 17 vols. New York, 1959- :14 (1967): 760-1.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 153, repro., as by Verrocchio.

1969

  • Passavant, Günter. Verrocchio. Sculptures, Paintings and Drawings. Complete Edition. Translated from the German MS by Katherine Watson. London, 1969: 42-44, 199-201; repro. figs. 48 and 50.

  • Pope-Hennessy, John. "The 'aemulus" of Donatello." Times Literary Supplement (13 November 1969).

1970

  • Stites, Raymond S. The sublimations of Leonardo da Vinci, with a translation of the Codex Trivulzianus. Washington, D.C., 1970: 18, repro. 6.

  • Arnoldi, Francesco Negri. "Scultura Italiana al Victoria and Albert Museum II." Commentari XXI (July-September 1970): 212.

1971

  • Seymour, Charles. The Sculpture of Verrocchio. Greenwich, CT, 1971: 127, [157], fig. 171, 170-171, n. 25.

  • Cannon-Brookes, Peter. "Review of Charles Avery, Florentine Renaissance Sculpture, 1970." Apollo 94 (November 1971): 420.

1972

  • Covi, Dario. "Review of G. Passavant, Verrocchio, translated by. Katherine Watson, 1969." Art Bulletin 54, no. 1 (March 1972): 91.

1973

  • Hall, Michael. "Reconsiderations of Sculpture by Leonardo da Vinci. A Bronze Statuette in the J. B. Speed Art Museum." J. B. Speed Art Museum Bulletin 29 (November, 1973): 42-43, n. 12; repro.

1975

  • Passavant, Günter. "The sculpture of Verrocchio. By Charles Seymour." Burlington Magazine CXVII (January 1975): 55-56.

  • Vayer, Lajos. “Alexandros és Corvinus….” Müvészettörténeti Értesítö XXIV (1975): 25-36.

1976

  • Vayer, Lajos. “Il Vasari e l’arte del Rinascimento in Ungheria”. In Il Vasari, storiografo e artista. Atti del congress internazionale nel IV centenario della morte, Arezzo Firenze, 2-8 settembre 1974. Florence, 1976: 501-524, esp. 511-513, repro.

1979

  • Chastel, André. "Les capitaines antiques affrontés dans l’art florentin du XVe siècle." In Fables, Forms, Figures. 2 vols. Paris, 1978: 1:237-47, esp. 239.

1982

  • Balogh, Jolán and Manfred Leithe-Jasper in Gottfried Stangler et. al., eds. Matthias Corvinus und die Renaissance in Ungarn 1458-1541. Exh. cat. Niederösterreichisches Landesmuseum, Schloss Schallaburg_ Vienna, 1982: 314-317, n. 264.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 630, no. 980, repro.

1986

  • Pope-Hennessey, John. An Introduction to Italian Sculpture. London, 1986: 32, 293-294.

1988

  • Poeschel, Sabine. “Alexander Magnus Maximus. Neue Aspekte zur Ikonographie Alexanders de Grossen im Quattrocento.” Römische Jahrbuch 23-24 (1988): 68-69, repro., 72.

  • Rosand, David. The Meaning of the Mark. Leonardo and Titian. Lawrence, Kansas, 1988: 20, 45 n. 21, repro. fig. 22.

1990

  • Lodge, Nancy. “A Renaissance King in Hellenistic Disguise: Verrocchio’s Reliefs for King Matthias Corvinus.” In S. Matteo, C. Donatelli Noble, M. U. Sowell, eds. Italian Echoes in the Rocky Mountains. Papers from the 1988 Annual Conference of the American Association for Italian Studies Held in Provo, Utah. Provo, 1990: 23-46, esp. 23, 30, 31, repro.

1991

  • Adorno, Piero. Il Verrocchio. Nuove proposte nella civiltà artistica del tempo di Lorenzo il Magnifico. Florence, 1991: 175-179, 295 n., repro.

1992

  • Sheard, Wendy Stedman. "The Tomb of Doge Andrea Vendramin in Venice by Tullio Lombardo." 2 vols. Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, New Haven, 1971. Ann Arbor, MI, 1992: 205, 437 n. 34.

  • Stapleford, Richard. The Age of Lorenzo de' Medici: Patronage and the Arts in Renaissance Florence. A Walking Tour of Italian Painting and Sculpture in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1992: 11, repro.

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 234, repro.

  • Popham, A. E. The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci. Rev. ed. London, 1994: 40.

1995

  • Luchs, Alison. Tullio Lombardo and Ideal Portrait Sculpture in Renaissance Venice, 1490-1530. Cambridge, England, and New York, 1995: 146, n. 103.

1996

  • Passavant, Gunter. “Zum Stand der Verrocchio-Forschung.” In Herbert Beck, Maraike Bückling and Edgar Lein, eds. Die Christus-Thomas-Gruppe von Andrea del Verrocchio. Frankfurt am Main, 1996: 207-213 and 344-49, esp. 212-213 and 217 notes, repro.

1997

  • Butterfield, Andrew. The Sculptures of Andrea del Verrocchio. New Haven and London, 1997: 153, 156-157, 230-232, no. 25, pl. 205.

1998

  • Brown, David Alan. Leonardo da Vinci. Origins of a Genius. New Haven and London, 1998: 68-73, notes 91-113, repro.

  • Fenton, James. “Verrocchio: The New Cicerone.” In Fenton, Leonardo’s Nephew: essays on art and artist. New York, 1998: 50-67, esp. 55-56.

  • Fenton, James. "Review of Andrew Butterfield, The Sculptures of Andrea del Verrocchio." New York Review of Books vol. 19, n. 2 (1998): not paginated.

2003

  • Gregori, Mina, ed. In the Light of Apollo: Italian Renaissance and Greece. 2 vols. Exh. cat. National Gallery and Alexandros Souzos Museum, Athens, 2003-2004: 1:192, 194, fig. 10, as Profile of a warrior (Alexander the Great?) by Andrea del Verrocchio.

  • Windt, Francesca. Andrea del Verrocchio und Leonardo da Vinci: Zusammenarbeit in Skulptur und Malerei. Münster, 2003: 173-4, 181, 236-239, repro.

  • Vogel, Carol. "Another Trip for 'David'." The New York Times (July 18, 2003).

2004

  • Giusti, Annamaria et. al., eds. Masters of Florence: Glory & genius at the court of the Medici. Exh. cat. Memphis, 2004: 82.

  • Weiss, Rick. “Alexander and the Rustle of Black Wings.” The Washington Post (July 19, 2004): A-6, repro.

2005

  • Covi, Dario. Andrea del Verrocchio, Life and Work. Florence, 2005: 11, 138-143, figs. 126, 127.

2007

  • Pisani, Linda. Francesco di Simone Ferrucci. Itinerari di uno scultore fiorentino fra Toscana, Romagna e Montefeltro. Florence, 2007: 40-42, repro.

2011

  • Caglioti, Francesco. “Andrea del Verrocchio e i profili di condottieri antichi per Mattia Corvino." In Italy & Hungary. Humanism and Art in the Early Renaissance. Proceedings of an international conference held at the Villa I Tatti, Florence, June 6-8, 2007. Péter Farbaky and Louis A. Waldman, eds. Villa I Tatti, Florence and Milan, 2011: 505-551, esp. 508, 517, 536-539, 546-548, fig. 7, fig. 19, repro.

  • Pócs, Dániel. “White marble sculptures from the Buda Castle: Reconsidering some facts about an antique statue and a fountain by Verrocchio.” In Italy & Hungary. Humanism and Art in the Early Renaissance. Proceedings of an international conference held at the Villa I Tatti, Florence, June 6-8, 2007. Farbaky, Péter and Louis A. Waldman, eds. Villa I Tatti, Florence and Milan, 2011: 553-608, esp. 563-564, 589.

  • Caglioti, Francesco. “Da una costola di Desiderio: due marmi giovanili del Verrocchio." In Connors, Joseph, Alessandro Nova, Beatrice Paolozzi Strozzi and Gerhard Wolf, eds. Desiderio da Settignano. Venice, 2011: no. 17.

2017

  • Fisher, Allison. "Portraits of Alexander the Great during the Italian Renaissance." Artibus et historiae 39, no. 75 (2017): 79-96, esp. 82-84, repro. 83, 94-95.

Wikidata ID

Q63810244

You may be interested in

Loading Results