Hellenistic Portraits, McFadden 1951George H. McFadden

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We shall see that both the coin portrait and the marble head are representations of young men with regular features. It is not at all surprising, therefore, that the resemblance should be as close as it is. [handwritten: Thus], however, we compare the marble head with some other coin portraits of Alexander, the resemblance is not close. It would indeed be surprising if out of the varying coin portraits it were not possible to find one that resembled our marble head. Inhoof-Blumer

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illustrates on the same plate [handwritten: 50] the coin of Demetrios with his portrait on the obverse. He is represented here with upright bull horns. The resemblance between the two coin portraits is as great certainly as that between either one of them and our marble head. It will be seen [handwritten: at] how difficult it is to identify an idealized profile portrait of a young man with regular features. A further difficulty presents itself in this instance in that we have no way of telling how to restore the missing end of the nose. This might be important in distinguishing between Alexander and Demetrios, inasmuch as Demetrios' nose is sometimes represented on the

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coins with a projecting and slightly drooping tip. The literary evidence of portraits of Alexander does not help us very much. Plutarch writes that Lysippus only, as it would seem, truly revealed his nature in bronze and portrayed his courage in visible form, while other artists in their anxiety to reproduce the bend of the neck and the melting look of the eyes failed to preserve his masculine and leonine

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aspect." We assume therefore, that portraits of Alexander