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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GinoLR, post: 25745901, member: 128351&quot;]The Versailles picture (that obviously would need cleaning and probably restoration) is <u>attributed to</u> Guillaume Courtois (alone) by the website of the <i>Réunion des Musées Nationaux</i>. Where did you find that is was painted by &quot;Guillaume Courtois, Jacques Courtois (&quot;Le Bourguignon&quot;), and Pietro Berrettini Da Cortona&quot;? </p><p>This monumental picture was painted in the 1660s. It is said to be titled &quot;Alexandre le Grand, vainqueur de Darius à la bataille d&#039;Arbelles&quot; (that is the battle of Gaugamela), but it could represent as well the battle of Issos. A smaller picture has been auctioned these last times, said to be of Jacques Courtois and to represent the battle of Issus. It is not the same picture, of course, but both works have much in common and it is obvious they represent the battle of Issus. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1644454[/ATTACH]</p><p><font size="3">Smaller painting by Jacques Courtois, The Battle of Issus; Alexander The Great’s Army defeats Darius and the Persians - Auctioned but I don&#039;t know when and by whom.</font></p><p><br /></p><p>The Versailles monumental canvas and the less monumental one represent the decisive moment when Alexander got so close to Darius&#039; chariot that the two kings could see each other, just before Darius immediately retreated on his chariot. This dramatic moment is told by Diodorus Siculus and Quintus Curtius. </p><p><br /></p><p>But there is something very amazing in these two pictures by Jacques Courtois. They are typically baroque, painted in the 17th c. style, OK. There was an European tradition of paintings representing the battles of Issus and/or Gaugamela, by Albrecht Altdorfer in the 16th c. or by Jan Brueghel the Elder c. 1600, for example. The Courtois pictures of the 1660s do not look like the previous ones, he focused on less characters, on the meeting of the two kings, the fear of Darius, the horses, some being seen from back, the fallen braves, etc. </p><p><br /></p><p>The closest parallel we can find for Courtois&#039; views of the battle is the huge Alexander mosaic of Pompei&#039;s House of the Faun. It&#039;s a 2nd c. BC Roman mosaic inspired by some then famous but now lost Hellenistic painting, probably by Philoxenos of Eretria. But the problem is that during Courtois&#039; lifetime this mosaic was buried under several meters of ashes: it was discovered in 1831 ! </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1644461[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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