Man in Armor beside a Chariot
Medium
pen and brown ink and brush and brown wash over black chalk, heightened with white
Dimensions
sheet: 35.7 × 27.1 cm · secondary support: 35.7 × 27.4 cm
Classification
Drawing
Department
Drawings
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Dudley P. Allen Fund
Accession Number
1964.99
Tags
About this artwork
This drawing of a young soldier setting fire to a cart of war trophies may represent a rarely depicted legend about the Macedonian king Alexander the Great (356–323 BC), who built one of the largest empires of the ancient world by the time he was 30 years old. Because the heavy spoils of war were slowing down his troops, Alexander set fire to his own cart of goods to encourage his soldiers to do the same. Renaissance princes revered him as a brilliant military strategist. Emperor Maximilian I (r...