The Triumphal Entry of Alexander into Babylon, XX - Item #761

 

24 Inches High x 38 Inches Wide

This panel is from the frieze called the Triumphal Entry of Alexander into Babylon. Depicted is an elephant loaded with the plunder of war being led by a Macedonian soldier and also a Persian general under the guard of a young Macedonian soldier. Thorvaldsen was commissioned to create the frieze for Napoleon's visit to Rome which, in the end, did not occur, but Thorvaldsen’s reputation nonetheless was secured. His copy of the frieze for Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen was severely damaged in a fire in 1884, but has since been partially restored. Today, the Thorvaldsens Museum houses both a marble original and a plaster copy of the approximately 115-foot-long (1380-inches-long) frieze. P. P. Caproni & Bro. noted in their 1911 catalog that they made their model "directly from the original marbles in the Thorwaldsen Museum at Copenhagen, by special permission of the Danish Government."

 

Artist: Bertel Thorvaldsen

Museum/Location: Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen, Quirinal Palace, Rome, and Christiansborg Palace, Copenhagen

Origin: Quirinal Palace, Rome

Time Period: Neoclassical, 1812

1911 Catalog ID # - 10007 Slab XX

 

Sources:

"Alexander the Great's Entry into Babylon, A503." Bertel Thorvaldsen's Art and Collections, https://kataloget.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk/en/A503.

Exhibition description for "In Praise of Power. Napoleon, Alexander the Great and Thorvaldsen." Thorvaldsens Museum. http://www.thorvaldsensmuseum.dk/en/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/in-praise-of-power.