The catalogue accompanies the exhibition Alessandro e l’Oriente presented at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale in Naples from 29 May to 28 August 2023. Step by step, with insightful and lavishly illustrated colour entries, the visitor is accompanied on a visit to the exhibition to discover the life, exploits and fame that made Alexander a legend.

On display are some 170 works from every corner of the world ranging from ancient Persia to Gandhara. To these mirabilia of the past are added numerous finds from the permanent collection of the MANN, the only museum to have three portraits of the Macedonian, among them the most precious, the mosaic of the Battle of Gaugamela, with the admirable image of the hero riding Bucephalus as he hurls himself against Darius on his high chariot. Scholars believe this work, currently under restoration (a reproduction of it is placed as a carpet in the Salone della Meridiana, in the area where the interior of the House of the Faun is reconstructed) to be a Roman copy of a sublime work by the most famous painter of antiquity, Apelles.
The opening of the exhibition coincides with the beginning of the second phase in the epochal restoration of the famous mosaic, which can be followed in the coming months thanks to a “transparent construction site” (with completion of the work scheduled for March 2024).