Alexander: Great, Yes, but Not Perfect

The facts of Alexander the Great’s life are buried in mythology and legend. But if you work your way through the cloud of impossible stories--including his tour of ocean depths in a glass diving bell and exploration of the heavens in a basket propelled by griffins--you find documented events and achievements. What’s more, the truth is so impressive that it goes a long way to explain the fiction.

Consider the following:

* Born in 356 BC, the son of King Philip II of Macedonia, Alexander was educated by Aristotle and ascended to the throne at the age of 20.

* Within two years, he brought all of Greece under Macedonian rule.

* In the following 11 years, until his death in 323 BC, at 32, he conducted the longest military campaign in history.

* Advancing 11,000 miles, he conquered most of the ancient classical world, destroyed the Persian Empire and extended Greco-Macedonian civilization eastward, across the borders of India.

When you combine Alexander’s actual conquests with his self-aggrandizing instincts--which led him to claim descent from Greek heroes Herakles and Achilles and to identify himself with the gods Zeus Ammon and Dionysus, it’s no wonder he was regarded as superhuman.

It’s also no surprise that Alexander has spawned an industry of scholarship and literature. His cult status also has inspired thousands of artists to portray him, leading to his being the subject of dozens of art exhibitions. The biggest one in recent years was “The Search for Alexander,” a 175-piece traveling extravaganza launched in 1980 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

Now, there’s another exhibition: “The Making of a Hero: Alexander the Great From Antiquity to the Renaissance,” opening Tuesday at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu. Despite its sweep through 19 centuries, this is a very small show that explores the creation and development of Alexander myths in just 15 works from the museum’s collection of antiquities and illuminated manuscripts.

In keeping with Getty Museum director John Walsh’s oft-stated policy of trying to be “the museum that does the most with its collection,” the Alexander show calls attention to relatively little-known pieces and imbues them with new meaning. Removed from their usual resting places, in galleries or storage, the objects acquire additional significance by becoming team players.

The game, of course, is painless enlightenment. If you choose to play it, you will learn about perceptions--and misperceptions--of a historic figure while you appreciate artworks for their aesthetic merit.

This particular effort to tell a big story through a small group of artworks began with a 15th century Flemish manuscript, “Book of the Deeds of Alexander the Great,” said Elizabeth Teviotdale, the Getty’s assistant curator of manuscripts, who organized the show with Janet Grossman, assistant curator of antiquities. The museum purchased the spectacularly beautiful work in 1983 as part of the Peter and Irene Ludwig manuscript collection.

As is typical of secular manuscripts of the period, “Book of the Deeds” is a large work, with pages measuring 18 inches by 13 3/8 inches. It contains 14 illustrations attributed to the Master of the Jardin de vertuese consolation. The text is a French translation of a Latin biography of Alexander by the ancient Roman historian Quintus Curtius. Translator Vasco da Lucena, who completed his work in 1468, took on the project to get at the truth about Alexander during a revival of interest in the fabled conqueror.

The Getty has published a lavish, oversize volume reproducing all 14 images in “Book of the Deeds,” with a commentary by Scot McKendrick, curator of manuscripts at the British Library in London.

The new publication, “The History of Alexander the Great,” presented an opportunity to examine the museum’s Alexander holdings, Teviotdale said. She chose seven additional manuscripts to display, and Grossman selected seven items: three stone sculptures, two silver coins, a terra cotta plaque and a ring of gold and carnelian. Dating from shortly after Alexander’s death to the 15th century, the artworks track his image from antiquity to the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

“Do we know what he really looked like?” Grossman asked, repeating a frequent question about Alexander. Not precisely, but copies of portraits made during his lifetime and images created fairly soon after his death provide a much clearer picture than might be expected.

“He was depicted as a youthful conqueror,” she said. Ancient literature describes him as handsome, energetic, charismatic and bold in battle. Artists portrayed him as a young, vigorous, clean-shaven leader--which amounted to “a radical departure” from the older, bearded heroes that preceded him.

His thick mane of hair and beardless face make him easily recognizable in artworks dating from antiquity, but artists also endowed him with a variety of godlike attributes. The earliest pieces combine features of the real man with those of divine creatures. In a lifelike marble portrait from Greece--probably carved as part of a monument composed of several figures--his head is tipped in a rather dreamy, above-it-all attitude. An indented circle in the stone, running through the carved hair, probably held a metal wreath or royal headband, Grossman said.

On one silver coin--also from Greece--he wears a lion skin, linking him with Herakles, who was said to have been his ancestor and was known for slaying a ferocious beast. Portrayed in profile on another coin, Alexander has sprouted rams’ horns, which generally identify Zeus.

Yet another artist, an unknown Etruscan sculptor working in the early third century BC, merged Alexander with the Gorgon Medusa. In Greek mythology, the Gorgons were three sisters with snakes for hair. They were said to be so terrifying that anyone who looked at them would be turned to stone. The Gorgons could be useful, however: When images of the snake-haired monsters were placed on buildings or objects, they were thought to provide protection from evil forces. The portrait of Alexander as Medusa--probably made for a shrine or funerary monument--portrays him as something of a wild man, with wings and a mass of snakes on top of his curly hair. The human hero had acquired another layer of supernatural power.

The antiquities are the root of medieval fabrications about Alexander, Teviotdale said. But fast-forwarding to the illuminated manuscripts brings an abrupt change of attitude and aesthetic sensibility. In contrast to the somber antiquities, the manuscripts sparkle with imagination, glittering detail and color. By the Middle Ages, tales of Alexander had been told and retold by such fanciful storytellers that they had taken on a life of their own. Images of Alexander turned up in Bibles, biblical commentary and history books, as well as illuminated manuscripts. Artists apparently loved to illustrate the most fantastic legends, but they also portrayed him as an exemplary moral figure.

In the earliest manuscripts on view, he is seen on earth--advancing on the Persian army--and wafting heavenward in a basket powered by griffins, a contraption supposedly invented by Alexander. The mythical creatures, which were part lion and part eagle, were persuaded to keep flapping their wings by food held above their heads while their passenger explored new territory. In other illustrated adventures, he tames a fearsome horse and conducts an underwater exploration.

Medieval manuscripts also account for the beginning and end of Alexander’s life. He was credited with having three fathers: Philip of Macedonia, the Egyptian god Ammon and the magician Nectanebo. In the Getty’s version, from “Mirror of History” by Vincent de Beauvais, Nectanebo enters the queen’s room as her attendants leave. An illustration by Master of Jean de Mandeville in a “Historical Bible” depicts Alexander on his deathbed, dividing his kingdom among loyal nobles.

In the 15th century, scholars discounted the medieval legends about Alexander and began to look for facts in ancient texts. The single example of a Renaissance manuscript, “Book of the Deeds of Alexander the Great,” represents this effort. He is presented as a complicated man who was brave and accomplished but far from perfect. To make this point, Teviotdale chose to display “Alexander Fighting in the Town of the Sudracae,” a scene in which he battles against impossible odds during a campaign in India, but stupidly jumps off the ramparts into the enemy camp and gets wounded.

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“THE MAKING OF A HERO: ALEXANDER THE GREAT FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE RENAISSANCE,” J. Paul Getty Museum, 17985 Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu. Dates: Tuesdays to Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Ends Jan. 5. Phone: (310) 458-2003.