Bucephalus

Artist: unknown possibility after a bronze statue from the Hellenistic Period
Year: Ca. 1850
Italian or French casting
Medium: patinaed Bronze with gilt decorations
Provenance: Adelicia to her son Joseph Hayes Acklen to his daughter Jeannette Acklen Noel to her son Oscar Noel, Jr. to his daughter Adelicia Noel Leeper
2004.02.01EL on Loan for Adelicia Leeper

While this statue has remained in the Acklen family, its mate was sold at the estate sale in 1888. The whereabouts of that statue is unknown today. The statue originally had Alexander on Bucephalus. But that figure has been lost.

The Bucephalus statue has no foundry mark, but it was most likely was cast in France or Italy.

The most common source for reproductions of this subject is a Hellenistic Bronze in the National archaeological Museum in Naples, Italy; as well as an identical statue at from the Hellenistic Period (ca. 400 – 323 B.C) at the Museo Nazionale di Villa Giulia in Rome, Italy. There are a number of differences with the blanket and the horse’s tail. The base is a naturalistic setting also with a gilded element.

Bucephalus was the famous horse of Alexander the Great who carried him into most of his battles over the years. Bucephalus was killed in Alexander’s last great battle in 326B.C. Alexander gave a state funeral for him and built a city in India named Bucephala on the place where he died. Bucephala is modern day Jhelum.