Alexander and the Family of Darius

Artist Sebastiano Ricci Italian, 1659–1734

Datecirca 1708–1710

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions76 x 96 in. (193 x 243.8 cm)
Frame: 78 1/8 x 99 1/8 x 2 3/4 in. (198.4 x 251.8 x 7 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina

Object number52.9.165

On View

Not on view

Label Text
This painting illustrates an episode from the life of Alexander the Great, the famous fourth-century B.C. king of Macedon and ruler of an empire that eventually encompassed Greece, Persia, Egypt, and northern India. Alexander defeated the Persian king Darius III in a battle in which Darius's mother, wife, and two daughters were taken captive. Ancient accounts recorded that Alexander displayed great nobility of character in his treatment of the captives, citing the episode depicted here. Brought before the victorious general, the mother of Darius mistakenly knelt before Alexander's comrade Hephaestion. Alexander graciously put her at ease.
Ricci’s pendant (companion piece) to this painting, The Continence of Scipio, is also in the Museum’s collection.
ProvenanceAdmiral Hall, South Ash [probably Saltash], Cornwall; sold Christie's July 14, 1950; with David M. Koetser, New York, NY; sold to NCMA, 1952.Published ReferencesW. R. Valentiner, Catalogue of Paintings: Including Three Sets of Tapestries (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1956, no. 196, illus. (b-w).

Brooks Memorial Art Gallery, Memphis, TN, Sebastiano and Marco Ricci in America, 1965-66, cat. no. 61, illus. 51 (catalogue only, not included in exhibition).

Jeffrey Daniels, Sebastiano Ricci (Sussex: Wayland Publishers, 1976), cat. 366, illus. fig. 209.

Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 205.

Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 192.

Art Taylor, "Museum Loans," Preview: The Magazine of the North Carolina Museum of Art (March/April 2002), mentioned 7.

Yvon Le Gall, L’Anziana: Iconographie de la vieillesse feminine dans I’Italie de la Contre-réforme (Limoges: Presses universitaires de Limoges, 2016), 246, illus. (color), 247, fig. 73.
Exhibition HistoryWilmington, NC, Louise Wells Cameron Art Museum, "Eighteenth Century Paintings and Sculptures From the North Carolina Museum of Art," April 21, 2002-March 30, 2003.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "The People's Collection Reimagined," July 8, 2024-December 15, 2025. Object Rights Statement

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