Shop art print and framed art The Battle of Issus, or The Victory of Alexander the Great by Albrecht Altdorfer

The Battle of Alexander (in German, Alexanderschlacht) is a painting by Albrecht Altdorfer dating from 1529, which forms part of the collections of the Old Picture Gallery in Munich. The painting depicts the Battle of Issos, in which Alexander the Great triumphed over the Persian king Darius in 333 BC. The painting offers a vast panorama that blends into the sky with a slightly rounded horizon. On the right, the sun is low and shines down on the sea. At top left, the moon is surrounded by a halo of clouds. To the right are the seven arms of the Nile delta and to the left the Red Sea, from which it is separated only by an isthmus. The cartouche floating freely in the clouds in the upper part of the painting reads in Latin: Translation: "Alexander the Great defeats the last Darius, after 100,000 foot soldiers have fallen and 10,000 horsemen have been killed in the ranks of the Persians, and the mother, wife and children of King Darius, who fled with barely 1,000 horsemen, have been captured." The string in the cartouche tells the viewer where to look to find Alexander the Great among the crowd. Altdorfer inscribed on the lower edge 1529, ALBRECHT ALTORFER ZU REGENSPVRG FECIT (Albrecht Altdorfer zu Regensburg painted this picture.') To be as accurate as possible about the battle, he turned to ancient sources, in particular the Roman historian Quinte-Curce, who wrote a History of Alexander the Great. Altdorfer borrowed from him the supposedly exact number of combatants, [...]

 

This artwork is a painting from the renaissance period. It belongs to the flemish & northern renaissance style.

 

« The Battle of Issus, or The Victory of Alexander the Great » is kept at Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany.

 

Find the full description of The Battle of Issus, or The Victory of Alexander the Great by Albrecht Altdorfer on Wikipedia.