Portrait of a Pergamene Prince / The Hellenistic Ruler

myminifactory

This magnificent second-century BC bronze masterpiece, "The Hellenistic Prince" or "Hellenistic Ruler", resides at The Terme Museum. The sculpture has accumulated an impressive body of scholarly work, partly because its creator deserves meticulous study and analysis, but mainly because the portrait face has sparked intense debate over the artist's identity. He has been identified as Philip V of Macedon, Perseus, Alexander Balas, and more broadly, a hero or a Roman General, possibly Agrippa; this uncertainty has resulted in wildly varying estimates of the statue's date spanning three centuries. A prevailing theory links the body type and theme to the lost "Alexander with the Lance" by Lysippos. The attractions of this hypothesis are obvious, but neither the treatment of the nude nor the pose details align with Lysippan style; this constitutes a significant challenge. If we rely on copies like the Vatican Apoxyomenos, the Ludovisi Seated Ares, the "Sandalbinder", or even the Agias to define the Lysippan style, we must infer that Lysippos broke away from the fifth-century tradition of sculpting the torso's main muscular divisions with grooves and instead employed a more naturalistic, flowing surface for the nude. This work is influenced by the 4th-century BC sculpture of Alexander by Lysippus, making it one of the rarest examples of bronze Hellenistic sculpture. The original statue was cast using the lost-wax technique, and the figure proudly holds a spear in his right hand.