Alexander the Great

Opaque glass mosaic, designed by William Blake Richmond, executed by Messrs Powell of Whitefriars, completed by 1896



Alexander the Great appears in St Paul’s Cathedral in a series of pictures of famous prophets and patricians of Christian faith, and was himself revered by Christian communities in Ethiopia. Though not mentioned in the Bible by name, the prophets Daniel and Zechariah made prophecies believed to refer to Alexander and his conquests. When he died aged 32 in 323BC Alexander the Great had extended his native Macedonia into a vast Empire, including Persia and Egypt.



The two scenes behind the figure of Alexander probably depict the celebrations in relation to Alexander’s triumphal entrance to Babylon in 331BC, as described by Roman historian Quintus Curtius Rufus in the first century AD. The winged figure at the very top of the mosaic follows the iconography of the Egyptian goddess of Isis. Like the Virgin Mary today she was referred to as “Queen of Heaven” when her worship spread after Alexander’s conquest of Egypt. In the context of the imagery underneath, though, the entire scene is more likely a depiction of Assyrian religion, showing the so-called Tree of Life with a group of worshippers underneath the winged figure of the sun god Assur.





Brief description: Alexander the Great depicted seated with his hands folded on his sword, in Macedonian military, above figures in Babylonian, standing on either side of the Sacred Tree with a group of kneeling worshippers to the right, below a man playing a lyre and two dancers; underneath a cartouche with a pattern of blue birds and red trees, on a golden ground



Related quotes:

Browne 1896, p. 14: “Passing to the middle bay, the figure on the east side of the window is Alexander the Great, representing the secular arm which in God’s providence brought the Eastern and the Western worlds of old into relations one with the other. The background above shews the peoples of the East and the West moving towards a meeting place.”