Darius' Family At The Feet Of Alexander Magnus

Painting oil on canvas, measuring 78 x 110 unframed and 97 x 122 cm with coeval frame depicting the family of Darius with Alexander the Great, from the Roman school of the second half of the 17th century.

History tells us that in 333 BC. Alexander defeated Darius III, the last great king of the Achaemenid empire, at the Battle of Issus.
Darius escaped capture, but his wife( as well as sister ), mother and daughters were taken prisoner.
Alexander was merciful to them.

The painting tells us of the royal family's meeting with Alexander where the mother kneels to ask for mercy.

Evident are the stylistic and figurative correspondences with an emphasis proper to the Roman Baroque; I think this work should be ascribed to its central phase of the 1600s for a full adherence to the Baroque, but already undergirded by classicist attenuations in granting greater weight to the human figure, with the central group; I think this date is notable for the very dense presentation of the characters, while granting due space in the upper half with a landscape background.

However in this painting, the painter shows that he has fully assimilated the lesson of the style present in Rome in that period by orchestrating vast masses of characters with a dynamism of full Baroque taste, denouncing some Mannerist reminiscences in the central part in which the author's attention is focused on some splendid pairs of characters of more detailed definition and more vivid color ranges, such as the one with Darius's mother with Alexander himself with better-finished robes and above all with very delicate colors. 

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Mr. Riccardo Moneghini
Art Historian