'The battle of Issos'

PHILOXENOS OF ERETRIA (copy after)

c.170 b.c.
Mosaic - Archaeological Museum, Naples.

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“The battle of Issos” is the one of the unquestionable masterpieces of Ancient Greek Art, known by a copy found in the “House of the Faun” in Pompeii. A heartrendingly dramatic work with a remarkable sense of profundity, the mosaic depicts the moment in which Alexander the Great - represented from the side, his face emanating force and decision- attacks King Dario, the central figure in the composition.

The strenght of the work and the sense of movement caused by the foreshortenings of the horses and the inclined lances inevitably remind us to “The Battle of San Romano” painted by Paolo Uccello many centuries later, although in this case the sense of profundity is not caused by the perspective - that logically is nonexistent- but by the complexity in the disposition of the figures in many superposed levels.

Text: G. Fernández, www.theartwolf.com

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