Hellenistic Portraits, McFadden 1951George H. McFadden

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… often represented him with a bend in the neck, but not necessarily so. The Vatican head shows no marked bend in the neck. It might be said of it, however, that there is a certain "melting look" in the eyes but this might be said too. of many other statues. Nor is there anything about the Vatican head that is either particularly"masculine" of "leonine" As far as we can judge from literary evidence, therefore, the Vatican head might or might not be the portrait of Alexander. My friend, Mr. Wace, who sees in the Vatican head, a portrait of Demetrios Poliokertes bases his identification on the coinage. He believes that the head and the coin portraits "appear to correspond exactly". This may be so if one chooses the right coin for the coin portrait among the many coin portraits of Demetrios at one's disposal, or substitutes the end of the modern nose on the marble head, as Six was tempted to do, for one more to his liking. We have already seen how insecure a basis for identifying an idealized profile portrait of in the case of identifying an idealized profile portrait of a young man with regular features. The Vatican head, as illustrated in Arndt-Bruckman, resembles some coin portraits of Alexander as much as certain others of Demetrios. The closest resemblance in coin portraiture would be the one already referred to of Lysimachos by Imhoof-Blumer, but now generally accepted as that of Alexander. I conclude, accordingly, that on the basis of the coinage alone we cannot make identification of the Vatican head. What … continues