Alexander the Great – Leochares Portrait Head 18 cm

This sculptural head represents Alexander the Great, the legendary king of Macedonia whose campaigns reshaped the ancient world and marked the beginning of the Hellenistic age. The work is based on the celebrated Head of Alexander attributed to the renowned Greek sculptor Leochares, one of the leading artists of the late Classical period.

The original sculpture is preserved today in the Acropolis Museum in Athens. It is carved from Pentelic marble and dates to shortly after 338 BCE, following the Battle of Chaeronea, when Alexander visited Athens as a young prince. The piece was discovered in 1886 near the Erechtheion on the Athenian Acropolis.

The portrait displays the distinctive features associated with Alexander’s official imagery: youthful idealized features, parted lips, deep-set eyes, and the characteristic anastole, the upward sweep of hair above the forehead. These elements became defining traits in later representations of the ruler throughout the Hellenistic world.

The sculpture remains one of the most important surviving portraits of Alexander from the Classical Greek artistic tradition.