"I am a golden God!"—Robert Plant, overlooking the Sunset Strip
This pendant is an extremely accurate 3D scanned, 3D printed, and hand-cast reduction of "Alexander as the sun god Helios," an idealized, larger-than-life marble portrait of the warrior king Alexander the Great.
The Getty Museum describes Alexander as "the first Greek ruler to understand and exploit the propagandistic powers of portraiture," carefully identifying himself with "characteristics that had been used earlier for the representation of gods and heroes." In this portrait, Alexander is styled after images of the Greek god Helios, the personification of the Sun.
The colossal marble head is at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and is thought to be either from second century Egypt, or an expert counterfeit from the 1890s. Its missing nose is testament either to its age or the cleverness of the counterfeiter.
In 2013 I spent a week working at the Skulpturhalle Basel plaster cast museum in Basel, Switzerland, where I 3D scanned a high fidelity 19th-century plaster cast of the original Alexander marble. I’ve now prepared the resulting 3D data—the first of its kind—for 3D printing wax patterns which are then hand cast in a variety of precious and semi-precious metals in the traditional lost-wax casting method.
Whether it's a 1800 year-old design or a 125 year-old forgery, you can now wear Alexander as Helios around your neck, in an alloy of bronze and stainless steel.
(Visit my shop for the same piece in a variety of precious and semi-precious metals: shapeways.com/shops/cosmowenman)
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