Francesco Salvator Fontebasso: The Family of Darius Before Alexander (1750)

 

(Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, USA)

A painting by the Italian artist Francesco Salvator Fontebasso (1707-1769). This painting was part of a set which were executed to decorate the interior of the Palazzo Pola in Treviso. The painting itself shows a historical scene that took place after the Battle of Issus (November 5, 333 BC). During this battle, Alexander the Great defeated the Persian king Darius III. The Persian king managed to escape but his wife Stateira I, his mother, Sisygambis, and his daughters Stateira II and Drypetis were taken captive by the Macedonia army. When led before the Macedonian king, Sisygambis mistook the taller Hephaestion (a general in the army of Alexander the Great) for Alexander and knelt before him to plead for mercy. When her error was realized, Alexander magnanimously said that Hephaestion, too, was Alexander. Alexander displayed forgiveness in victory and treated his captives according to their virtue and character. Painting from 1750.