3-042-290 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Orsines Presenting a Gift to Alexander and the Execution of Orsines; Livre des fais d'Alexandre le grant, about 1470-1475. Additional Info: Inside a palatial hall, Orsines, a Persian military leader, kneels before Alexander to offer a gift. As Quintus Curtius Rufus's text recounts, although Orsines gives lavish gifts to Alexander's retinue, he snubs Alexander's lover Bagoas. Furious at being spurned, Bagoas turns Alexander against Orsines. Consistent with his increasingly immoral behavior, Alexander, under the sway of his lover, orders Orsines's death. The execution takes place outdoors at the right. Here, as Alexander and Bagaos watch from the palace steps, an executioner raises his sword above the kneeling Orsines.