- Alexandros of Antioch
Alexandros of Antioch was an otherwise unknown artist of the Hellenistic age who is most well known today for the
Venus de Milo (Aphrodite ofMilos ) at theLouvre Museum inParis ,France . He is known from several ancient inscriptions including one from a now missingplinth that was a part of the Venus de Milo but was removed and "lost" due to museum politics and national pride at the Louvre Museum in the 1820s. The inscription and the style of its lettering cast into doubt the claim that the statue was an original by the master sculptorPraxiteles fromAttica .Alexandros appears to have been a wandering artist who worked on commission. According to inscriptions at the ancient city of
Thespiae , nearMount Helicon , inGreece , he was a winner in contests for composing and singing. The inscriptions date to around 80BCE . His father's name was Menides according to all the inscriptions. Alexandros is also thought to have sculpted a statue ofAlexander the Great that is also displayed at the Louvre Museum. This statue was discovered at the Greek island ofDelos . His dates of birth and death are unknown.References
* Gregory Curtis. "Disarmed: the Story of the Venus de Milo". Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. ISBN 0-375-41523-8
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.