drawing
- Museum number
- 1960,1115.1
- Description
-
The birth of Alexander the Great; three women around a basin washing a baby, a woman lying on a bed behind at right with a snake on top
Pen and brown ink, with brown wash, on light brown prepared paper
- Production date
- 1514-1546
- Dimensions
-
Height: 208 millimetres
-
Width: 272 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- Pouncey & Gere 1962
1960,1115.1 is related in composition to one section of a frieze engraved by C. M. Metz as plate 45 of 'Schediasmata Selecta', 1791, a volume of facsimile engravings which to all appearances reproduce a late sixteenth-century collection of copies of Roman façade paintings (see 1870,0813.898). According to Plutarch, a large serpent is said to have appeared on the bed of Alexander's mother before his birth. The other sections of the frieze represent incidents in Alexander's life.
The exact relationship between 1960,1115.1 and the frieze is obscure: the style of the former suggests some connection with Giulio Romano, but the latter, to judge from Metz's engraving, seems to have been by Polidoro or by some close follower.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1960
- Acquisition notes
- Donated in 1946 but only registered in 1960
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1960,1115.1
