01 Work, The Art of War, Charles Le Brun's The passage of the Granicus, with footnotes

Le Brun, Charles, France , School of

The passage of the Granicus, c. 1664 / 1665

Oil on canvas

Height: 4.64 m; Width: 10.25 m

Louvre Museum

The Battle of the Granicus in May 334 BC was the first of three major battles fought between Alexander the Great of Macedon and the Persian Achaemenid Empire. The battle took place on the road from Abydus to Dascylium, at the crossing of the Granicus in the Troad region, which is now called the Biga River in Turkey. In the battle Alexander defeated the field army of the Persian satraps of Asia Minor, which defended the river crossing. After this battle, the Persians were forced on the defensive in the cities that remained under their control in the region. More on The Battle of the Granicus

Le Brun, Charles, France , School of

Left Detail; The passage of the Granicus, c. 1664 / 1665

Le Brun, Charles, France , School of

Center Detail; The passage of the Granicus, c. 1664 / 1665

Alexander rushes into battle, mounted on Bucephalus and wearing his helmet with its white plume.

Here Alexander is fighting against Rhesace, the most valiant captain of the Persian army, when he is about to be killed with a sword by the Persian satrap of Lydia, Spithridates. A companion of Alexander, Cleitos the Black, then appeared and saved the life of the Macedonian conqueror by cutting off Spithridates' arm with an ax.

Le Brun represents entangled horsemen raising their swords and horses, with bulging eyes, participating in the fury of the combat, like Bucephalus who violently bites Rhesace on the back! More on this painting

Le Brun, Charles, France , School of

Right Detail; The passage of the Granicus, c. 1664 / 1665

Charles Le Brun, (born Feb. 24, 1619, Paris, France—died Feb. 12, 1690, Paris), was a painter and designer who became the arbiter of artistic production in France during the last half of the 17th century. Possessing both technical facility and the capacity to organize and carry out many vast projects, Le Brun personally created or supervised the production of most of the paintings, sculptures, and decorative objects commissioned by the French government for three decades during the reign of Louis XIV. Under his direction French artists created a homogeneous style that came to be accepted throughout Europe as the paragon of academic and propagandistic art.

Le Brun studied first with the painter Guillaume Perrier and then with Simon Vouet. In 1642 he went to Rome. On his return to Paris he was given large decorative and religious commissions; his work for the Hôtel Lambert and for Nicolas Fouquet, the influential minister of finance, at Vaux-le-Vicomte in the 1650s made his reputation. His first commission from Louis XIV dates from 1661, when he painted the first of a series of subjects from the life of Alexander the Great. Le Brun was made first painter to the king, given an enormous salary, and until his death occupied a position of paramount importance in the artistic life of France. More on Charles Le Brun

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints, 365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

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01 Work, The Art of War, Theophilos Hatzimihail's Alexander the Great killing Mithridates, with footnotes

Theofilos Hadjimichael (Greek, 1871-1934)

The battle of Alexander the great with Mithridates/The Invasion of Alexander the Great in Persia, c. 

Natural pigments on cardboard

70 x 101 cm.

Private collection

Sold for £90,000 on 16 November 2016

Mighty, regal and handsome as an Olympian god, his golden armour flashing lightning, Alexander the Great, riding Bucephalus, his beloved black stallion and one of antiquity's most famous horses, plunges his lance in the body of Mithridatis, a high ranking Persian and son-in-law of king Darius III, at the famous Battle of the Granicus River in 334 BC. 

Alexander is clad in the attire of a Roman emperor, including a short blue tunic, gold breastplate and helmet and crimson red cloak. As noted by Y. Tsarouchis, "this outfit known from the folk woodcuts of Erotocritos and the Roman soldiers in 19th c. post-Byzantine icons, is identical to Italian opera costumes, as designed by famed set designers such as Torelli and long before them by such greats as Botticelli and Raphael, when they painted military saints or archangels." More on this work

Theophilos Chatzimichail (born c. 1870, Vareia, near Mytilene, island of Lesbos; died in Vareia, Greece, 24 March 1934), known simply as Theophilos, was a Greek folk painter and major contributor in modern Greek art. The main subject of his works are Greek characters and the illustration of Greek traditional folklore and history.

His life was very hard, partially because people made fun of him since he often wore the fustanella in public. At the age of 18 he abandoned his home and family and worked as a gate-keeper at the Greek consulate in Smyrna.

He stayed in Smyrna for a few years before he settled in the city of Volos in about 1897, searching for occasional work and painting in houses and shops of the area. Many of his murals exist today. His protector during that period was the landholder Giannis Kontos, for whom he did many works. As well as painting, he was also involved in organizing popular theatrical acts for national ceremonies, and in the carnival period he had a major role, sometimes dressing as Alexander the Great, with pupils in Macedonian phalanx formation, and sometimes as a hero of the Greek Revolution, with gear and costumes made by himself.

In 1927 he returned to Mytilene. 

In Mytilene, despite the mockery of the people, he continued to draw, painting many murals in villages for little payment, usually for a plate of food and a cup of wine. Many of his works of this period have been lost, either due to natural aging or from damage by the owners.

The renowned art critic and publisher Stratis Eletheriadis (Tériade), who lived in Paris, discovered Theophilos and brought him a great deal of recognition and also international publicity, though posthumous.

Theophilos died in March 1934, on the eve of the Annunciation, perhaps from food poisoning. In 1961, his works were exhibited in the Louvre as a sample of a genuine folk painter of Greece. In 1965, Tériade donated 86 painted works on textile to the Municipality of Lesvos, along with a building that became the Theophilos Museum in Vareia, Lesbos. More on Theophilos Chatzimichail

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints, 365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.