He's So Great

This weekend we visited the Hermitage Museum in Amsterdam which, Dear Devoted Reader, you probably remember from a previous post. The exhibition this time was The Immortal Alexander the Great (356-323 BC). He owes his handle ‘the Great’ to the fact that he virtually conquered the whole world by the time he was 30 years old. Wherever his armies fought, he founded cities (naming them Alexandria), brought wealth, opened trade routes and left his Greek and Macedonian troops there to mingle with the locals. This led to a mix mash of cultures, traditions, art and architecture dubbed Hellenism.

Alexander was the son of King Philip II of Macedonia but they didn’t get along well. When his father was assassinated he took the throne and two years later, aged 22 he kicked off on his great expedition to conquer the world. Syria, Egypt, Persia, Bactria and India: he fought, he conquered, he influenced decorative terracotta figurines.

He was acknowledged as a military genius, a consummate leader, who always led by example inspiring loyalty in his soldiers, who stuck with him for 13 years ,only once refusing to follow their commander when they were absolutely fed up. (But he also had a massive ego, was a drunk and had a bit of a short fuse and killed his friend who had once saved his life, Cleitus, in a drunken rage). As a child, he was taught by Aristotle. His father bought him a crazed horse that nobody could mount. Wizz kid Alexander noticed that the horse Bucephalus was afraid of his own shadow and so spun the horse around to the sun, calming him. The horse served him well for many years on the battlefields. He was also in awe of legends Achilles (Greek hero of the Trojan wars with the dodgy heel) and Heracles (Greek name for Hercules, a shining example of masculinity). A couple of massive 2nd century AD Heracles marble sculptures fighting lions and so forth featured in the exhibition.


Cameo. Twin portrait of Ptolemy II Philadelphos and Arsinoe II (Gonzaga Cameo), Alexandria. 3rd century BC, Three-layer sardonyx, 15.7 x 11.8 cm, State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg




© Pietro Antonio Rotari (1707-1762), Alexander the Great and Roxanne. 1756, Oil on canvas, 243 x 202 cm, State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg



© Head of Alexander (fragment of a figure), Asia Minor, Bithynia (?), Roman copy, 1st century BC, after Greek original. 175-150 BC, Fine-grained marble, h 6 cm. State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg

Throughout the centuries, Alexander the Great has been a source of inspiration for artists and writers. His portrait and scenes from his life have been painted, etched, carved, stitched, sculpted, crafted and moulded. The exhibition featured 17th century etchings and tapestry and 18th century carvings after the Charles Le Brun series of paintings in the Louvre. We saw objects characterising the Hellenistic civilisations he founded such as cameos and figurines from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD. And objects from his lifetime included coins, cameos and magnificent armour plates. Sean is most impressed by the ancient armour and weaponry and also by the sheer magnitude of Alexander’s conquest – some 22000 miles (35 000 kilometres) were covered by his soldiers in ten years. It looks good on a map.

We had an awesome lunch in the gezellig (Dutch for cosy) Beurs van Berlage cafe in Amsterdam. About 100 years old, this former building of the Stock Exchange is now used as a concert hall and cafe and was the venue for the Prince of Orange and Princess Máxima wedding ceremony in 2002. The food was lekker (Dutch for delicious) and good value, which is a change from some of the tacky touristy eat spots in Amsterdam.

Our journey home to The Hague took a couple of hours longer than we would have liked. Engineering works meant we should have changed trains at Haarlem but as announcements were not in English (and we dozed off in transit), we ended up at a station we had never heard of. Sean gently suggested perhaps I get some more Dutch practice in, so as to avoid such inconveniences in the future. Geez, I’ve used two Dutch words this blog, what does he expect?

Related articles

• Alexander the Great, Illustrated and Uncovered (online.wsj.com)