The Battle of Alexander at Issus
The Battle of Alexander at Issus | |
---|---|
Artist | Albrecht Altdorfer |
Year | 1529 |
Medium | oil painting on panel |
Dimensions | 158.4 cm × 120.3 cm (62.4 in × 47.4 in) |
Location | Alte Pinakothek, Munich |
The Battle of Alexander at Issus (German: Alexanderschlacht) is a 1529
Duke William IV of Bavaria commissioned The Battle of Alexander at Issus in 1528 as part of a set of historical pieces that was to hang in his Munich residence. Modern commentators suggest that the painting, through its abundant use of anachronism, was intended to liken Alexander's heroic victory at Issus to the contemporary European conflict with the Ottoman Empire. In particular, the defeat of Suleiman the Magnificent at the siege of Vienna may have been an inspiration for Altdorfer. A religious undercurrent is detectable, especially in the extraordinary sky; this was probably inspired by the prophecies of Daniel and contemporary concern within the Church about an impending apocalypse. The Battle of Alexander at Issus and four others that were part of William's initial set are in the Alte Pinakothek art museum in Munich.
Subject matter
Alexander embarked on his expedition to conquer the Persian Empire in the spring of 334 BC,
Darius' initial response was defensive: he immediately stockaded the river bank with stakes to impede the enemy's crossing. A core vanguard of traitorous Greek mercenaries and Persian royal guard was established; as was usual for Persian kings, Darius positioned himself in the centre of this vanguard, in order that he might effectively dispatch commands to any part of his large army.[15] A group of Persian light infantry was soon sent to the foothills, as it was suspected that Alexander would make an approach from the right, away from the coast. A mass of cavalry commanded by Nabarsanes occupied the Persian right.[16]
Alexander made a cautious and slow advance, intending to base his strategy on the structure of the Persian force. He led a flank of his Companion cavalry on the right, while the Thessalian cavalry were dispatched to the left, as a counter to Nabarsanes' mounted unit.[17] Aware of the importance of the foothills to his right, Alexander sent a band of light infantry, archers, and cavalry to displace the defence Darius had stationed there. The enterprise was successful – those Persians not killed were forced to seek refuge higher in the mountains.[17][18]
When within missile range of the enemy, Alexander gave the order to charge.
Upon realising that the onslaught of Alexander's Companion cavalry was unstoppable, Darius and his army fled. Many were killed in the rush, trampled by those who fled with them or collapsed with their horses.[20] Some escaped to regions as remote as Egypt, and others reunited with Darius in the north.[21] The onset of darkness ended the chase after approximately 20 km (12 mi); Alexander then recalled his army and set about burying the dead. Darius' family were left behind in the Persian camp; it is reported that Alexander treated them well and reassured them of Darius' safety.[21][22] Darius' royal chariot was found discarded in a ditch, as were his bow and shield.[21]
Ancient sources present disparate casualty figures for the Battle of Issus.
The Macedonian conquest of Persia continued until 330 BC, when Darius was killed and Alexander took his title as king.[26] Alexander died in 323 BC, having recently returned from campaigning in the Indian subcontinent. The cause of death remains a subject of debate.[27][28]
Background
Previous work
Altdorfer also produced a great deal of religious artwork, in reflection of his devout Catholicism. His most frequent subjects were the
Larry Silver of
Although the Battle of Alexander is atypical of Altdorfer in its size and in that it depicts war, his Triumphal Procession – a 1512–16 illuminated manuscript commissioned by Maximilian I of the Holy Roman Empire – has been described as a conceptual antecedent.[37] The Procession was produced in parallel with the Triumph of Maximilian, a series of 137 woodcuts collaboratively executed by Altdorfer, Hans Springinklee, Albrecht Dürer, Leonhard Beck and Hans Schäufelein.[38]
Influences and commission
Altdorfer's most significant contemporary influence was
Earlier depictions
Earlier depictions of the Battle of Issus are few. Battle of Issus, a fresco by Philoxenus of Eretria, is probably the first such. It was painted sometime around 310 BC for Cassander (c. 350–297 BC), who was one of Alexander the Great's successors.[49] Alexander and Darius – each within a lance's length of the other – are pictured among a wild fray of mounted and downed soldiers. While Alexander maintains an aura of unshaken confidence, fear is etched in Darius' face, and his charioteer has already turned to rein his horses and escape.[49] Roman author and natural philosopher Pliny the Elder claimed that Philoxenus' portrayal of the battle was "inferior to none".[49] Some modern critics posit that Battle of Issus might not have been the work of Philoxenus, but of Helena of Egypt. One of the few named women painters who might have worked in Ancient Greece,[50][51] she was reputed to have produced a painting of the battle of Issus which hung in the Temple of Peace during the time of Vespasian.[52]
The
Painting
Description
The Battle of Alexander at Issus is painted on a
Thousands of horse and foot soldiers immersed in a sea of spears and lances populate the foreground. The two armies are distinguished by their dress, anachronistic though it is: whereas Alexander's men clad themselves and their horses in full suits of heavy armour, many of Darius' wear turbans and ride naked mounts.[60] The bodies of the many fallen soldiers lie underfoot. A front of Macedonian warriors in the centre pushes against the crumbling enemy force, who flee the battlefield on the far left. The Persian king joins his army on his chariot of three horses, and is narrowly pursued by Alexander and his uniformly attired Companion cavalry.[47] The tract of soldiers continues down the gently sloped battlefield to the campsite and cityscape by the water, gravitating toward the mountainous rise at the scene's centre.
Beyond is the
A fierce sky caught in the dichotomy between the setting sun and the crescent moon dominates more than a third of the painting.[57] The rain-heavy clouds swirling ominously around each celestial entity are separated by a gulf of calmness, intensifying the contrast and infusing the heavens with an unearthly glow.[62] Light from the sky spills onto the landscape: while the western continent and the Nile are bathed in the sun's light, the east and the Tower of Babel are cloaked in shadow.
The painting's subject is explained in the tablet suspended from the heavens. The wording, probably supplied by William's court historian Johannes Aventinus,[63] was originally in German but was later replaced by a Latin inscription. It translates:
Alexander the Great defeating the last Darius, after 100,000 infantry and more than 10,000 cavalrymen had been killed amongst the ranks of the Persians. Whilst King Darius was able to flee with no more than 1,000 horsemen, his mother, wife, and children were taken prisoner.
No date is provided for the battle alongside these casualty figures. The lower left-hand corner features Altdorfer's monogram – an 'A' within an 'A' – and the lower edge of the tablet is inscribed with "ALBRECHT ALTORFER ZU REGENSPVRG FECIT" ("Albrecht Altdorfer from Regensburg made [this]"). Tiny inscriptions on their chariot and harness identify Darius and Alexander, respectively.[64] Each army bears a banner that reports both its total strength and its future casualties.[43][60]
Analysis and interpretation
Anachronism is a major component of The Battle of Alexander at Issus. By dressing Alexander's men in 16th-century steel armour and Darius' men in Turkish battle dress, Altdorfer draws deliberate parallels between the Macedonian campaign and the contemporary European–Ottoman conflict.
In his Futures Past: On the Semantics of Historical Time, historian Reinhart Koselleck discusses Altdorfer's representation of time in a more philosophical light. After differentiating between the superficial anachronism found in the casualty figures on the army banners and the deeper anachronism ingrained in the painting's contemporary context, he posits that the latter type is less a superimposition of one historical event over another and more an acknowledgement of the recursive nature of history. With reference to Koselleck, Kathleen Davis argues: "... for [Altdorfer], 4th-century Persians look like 16th-century Turks not because he does not know the difference, but because the difference does not matter ... The Alexanderschlacht, in other words, exemplifies a premodern, untemporalized sense of time and a lack of historical consciousness ... Altdorfer's historical overlays evince an eschatological vision of history, evidence that the 16th century (and by degrees also the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries) remained locked in a static, constant temporality that proleptically saturates the future as always a repetition of the same ... In such a system there can be no event as such: anticipation and arrival are together sucked into the black hole of sacred history, which is not temporalized because its time is essentially undifferentiated ..."[65]
Featured alongside the anachronism in The Battle of Alexander at Issus is a genuine lack of historicity. Altdorfer demonstrates minimal hesitance in neglecting the painting's historical integrity for the sake of its heroic style, in spite of the pains he took to research the battle. That the Persian army was up to twice the size of the Macedonian army is not clear, and the relative positioning of the soldiers as reported by ancient sources has been disregarded. According to art critic Rose-Marie Hagen, "The artist was faithful to the historical truth only when it suited him, when historical facts were compatible with the demands of his composition."[60] Hagen also notes the placement of women on the battlefield, attributing it to Altdorfer's "passion for invention",[60] since the wife of Darius, his mother and his daughters were waiting for Darius back at the camp, not in the thick of battle.[66] True to form, however, Altdorfer made the aristocratic ladies "look like German courtly ladies, dressed for a hunting party" in their feathered toques:[60]
Altdorfer's primary point of reference in his research was probably
The sky bears overt metaphorical significance and is the centrepiece of the painting's symbolism. Alexander, identified by the Egyptians and others as a god of the sun, finds his victory in the sun's rays; and the Persians are routed into the darkness beneath the crescent moon, a symbol of the
Legacy
The Battle of Alexander at Issus remained part of the royal collection of the Dukes of Bavaria for centuries. By the late 18th century, it was regularly featured in public galleries at the
The Battle of Alexander at Issus and 26 others taken in the 1800 invasion were subsequently restored to the
Contextually, the painting forms part of the Northern Renaissance, a resurgence of classical humanism and culture in northern Europe during the 15th and 16th centuries. The Renaissance induced a new kind of social individualism which Altdorfer expressed through the heroic emphasis on Alexander and Darius, and which is reflected in the specifics of the painting's commission and by the subjects of its companion pieces: "During the Renaissance people no longer saw themselves solely as members of a social group, as the citizens of a town, or as sinners before God in whose eyes all were equal. They had become aware of the unique qualities that distinguished one person from another. Unlike the Middle Ages, the Renaissance celebrated the individual. Altdorfer may have painted row after row of apparently identical warriors, but the spectators themselves would identify with Alexander and Darius, figures who had names, whose significance was indicated by the cord which hung down from the tablet above them."[47]
Altdorfer was not only a pioneer of landscape, but also a practitioner of early incarnations of the
The Battle of Alexander at Issus is typically considered to be Altdorfer's
Gallery
See also
Notes
- ^ Corvisier; Childs, p. 21
- ^ Heckel; Yardley, p. 299
- ^ Polelle, p. 75
- ^ Bryant, p. 280
- ^ Neilburg, p. 10
- ^ Sacks; Murray; Bunson, p. 14
- ^ Russell, pp. 211–12
- ^ a b Smith, p. 970
- ^ Bosworth, pp. 28–35
- ^ Hamilton, p. 63
- ^ Warry, p. 31
- ^ Romm; Mensch, p. 48
- ^ a b Buckley, p. 503
- ^ Romm; Mensch, pp. 48–49
- ^ Warry, p. 33
- ^ Savill, p. 33
- ^ a b c Savill, p. 34
- ^ a b Warry, p. 34
- ^ a b Warry, p. 35
- ^ Warry, p. 36
- ^ a b c Savill, p. 35
- ^ Warry, pp. 37–38
- ^ a b De Sélincourt, p. 121
- ^ Warry, p. 37
- ^ Romm; Mensch, p. 54
- ^ Sacks; Murray; Bunson, p. 17
- ^ Heckel, p. 84
- ^ "Alexander the Great and West Nile Virus Encephalitis (Replies)". CDC. 2004.
- ^ Keane, p. 165
- ^ Clark, p. 38
- ^ Roskill, p. 65
- ^ Earls, p. 81
- ^ Wood, p. 9
- ^ Wood, p. 47
- ^ a b c Silver, pp. 204–205
- ^ Silver, p. 204
- ^ Wood, pp. 23, 199–202
- ^ Cuneo, p. 99
- ^ Janson, p. 393
- ^ Roskill, pp. 64–65
- ^ Wood, pp. 70–73
- ^ Silver, p. 209
- ^ a b c Davis, p. 91
- ^ a b c d Hagen; Hagen, p. 128
- ^ Alte Pinakotek, p. 28
- ^ Ansell, p. 4
- ^ a b c d e Hagen; Hagen, p. 131
- ^ Clanton, p. 142
- ^ a b c d Kleiner 2009, p. 142
- ^ Stokstad; Oppenheimer; Addiss, p. 134
- ^ Summers, p. 41
- Ptolemy Hephaestion New History (codex 190) Bibliotheca Photius
- ^ Kinzl, p. 476
- ^ Campbell, p. 51
- ^ McKay, p. 144
- ^ "The Battle of Issus". Alte Pinakothek. Archived from the original on 4 June 2010. Retrieved 10 November 2009.
- ^ a b c d Hagen; Hagen, p. 133
- ^ Wood, p. 201
- ^ a b c Kleiner 2008, p. 510
- ^ a b c d e f g Hagen; Hagen, p. 130
- ^ a b c d e Hagen; Hagen, p. 132
- ^ Clark, p. 41
- ^ Wood, pp. 21–22
- ^ a b c Janson; Janson, p. 544
- ^ a b c Davis, pp. 91–92
- ^ Quintus Curtius Rufus, III.12.24
- ^ a b Oman, p. 116
- ^ Hanawalt; Kobialka, p. 224
- ^ Kleiner 2009, p. 511
- ^ a b Alte Pinakothek, pp. 24–29
- ^ Clark, p. 40
- ^ a b Wood, p. 22
- ^ Svanberg, pp. 70–86
- ^ Clark, p. 36
- ^ a b Cuneo, p. 186
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External links
- Media related to The Battle of Alexander at Issus at Wikimedia Commons
- The Battle of Alexander at Issus Archived 9 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Smarthistory at Khan Academy