As Alexander the Great is represented with a similar elephant skin on coins minted by Ptolemy I of Egypt, this statuette may represent Alexander as ruler of Egypt. This figure has also been identified as Demetrios I of Bactria, who is represented on coins wearing the scalp of an elephant in recognition of his conquests in India. Its monumental quality may signify that it reflects a famous large-scale equestrian statue.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Bronze statuette of a rider wearing an elephant skin
Period:Hellenistic
Date:3rd century BCE
Culture:Greek
Medium:Bronze
Dimensions:9 3/4in. (24.8cm)
Classification:Bronzes
Credit Line:Edith Perry Chapman Fund, 1955
Object Number:55.11.11
Said to be from Athribis in the Nile Delta, Egypt
Alexander, Christine. 1958. "Newly Acquired Bronzes." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 17(3): pp. 89, 91.
von Bothmer, Dietrich. 1962. "Five Attic Black-figured Lip-Cups." American Journal of Archaeology, 66(3): p. 258, fig. 8, pl. 66.
Kyrieleis, Helmut. 1975. Bildnisse der Ptolemäer. no. B2, p. 166, pls. 10.1–3, Berlin: Gebr. Mann.
Yalouris, Nikolaos, Manolis Andronikos, Katerina Rhomiopoulou, Ariel Herrmann, Cornelius Vermeule, and Dr. Manolis Korres. 1980. The Search for Alexander: An Exhibition. no. 46, p. 123, Boston: New York Graphic Society.
Smith, Roland R.R. 1988. Hellenistic Royal Portraits. p. 153, pl. 70.2, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Himmelmann, Nikolaus. 1989. Herrscher und Athlet: Die Bronzen vom Quirinal. pp. 231–34, fig. 18, Milan: Olivetti.
Smith, Roland R.R. 1991. Hellenistic Sculpture: a handbook , World of Art. p. 19, fig. 5, New York: Thames and Hudson.
Schwentzel, Christian G. 1996. "L'image des Lagides de Ptolemee Ier à Cleopatre : étude historique de l'iconographie des Lagides. Ph.D. diss." Ph.D. Diss. pp. 76–77, fig. 59. Université de Paris-Sorbonne.
Pfrommer, Michael. 1999. Alexandria, im Schatten der Pyramiden. p. 111, fig. 152, Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern.
Nihon Hoso Kyokai. 2003. Alexander the Great: East-West Cultural Contacts from Greece to Japan. no. 26, p. 52, Tokyo: Nihon Hoso Kyokai.
Pandermalis, Dimitrios. 2004. Alexander the Great: Treasures from an Epic Era of Hellenism no. 7, p. 28, New York: Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation (USA), Inc.
Picón, Carlos A. 2007. Art of the Classical World in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Greece, Cyprus, Etruria, Rome no. 202, pp. 172, 441, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Picón, Carlos A. and Seán Hemingway. 2016. Pergamon and the Hellenistic Kingdoms of the Ancient World no. 12, p. 111, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Karoglou, Kyriaki. 2019. "An Early Hellenistic Votive Statuette in The Metropolitan Museum of Art : Dionysos Melanaigis?." Art of the Hellenistic Kingdoms from Pergamon to Rome, Seán Hemingway and Kyriaki Karoglou, eds. pp. 102–3, fig. 7, New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Wild, Tobias. 2023. "From Mold to Masterpiece : Producing Small-Scale Hellenistic Ruler Bronzes in Ptolemaic Egypt." Greek and Roman Small Size Sculpture, Giovanni Colzani, Clemente Marconi, and Fabrizio Slavazzi, eds. pp. 142–48, fig. 6, Berlin: Walter de Gruyter & Co.
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