The art of portraiture that we recognize today—
the identifiable representation of a person with
individual features—began in ancient Greece.
During his lifetime, Alexander the Great (356-
323 B.C.) made powerful political statements
by ordering the erection of statues, often larger
than life-size, of himself portrayed in a divine
state. His successors, such as the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt, followed his example for themselves and for their spouses, while Greek cities adorned public spaces with honorific statues of their most illustrious citizens and effigies of the
great poets and philosophers of the past. These
portraits were strongly idealized ; the Greeks
showed little interest in the actual appearance
of the model, and considered physical faults or
marks of age and illness to be insignificant and
vulgar details.
