Pietro Testa’s Alexander The Great saved from the river Cydnus

Pietro Testa (1612-1650) dedicated one of his last and most dramatic paintings to a rarely represented scene from the life of Alexander the Great. In the middle of a hot summer day, Alexander decided to bathe in the river Cydnus, not knowing that its waters were exceedingly cold. This decision to cool off in the river nearly caused the death of the great Macedonian commander. The quick reaction of Alexander’s soldiers and the medical treatment at the hands of his physician Philip of Acarnania prevented a tragedy in which Alexander was threatened to be defeated by nature rather than by an enemy.

This book is devoted to a visual analysis of the painting and interprets the work in the context of Testa’s artistic production in the second half of the 1640s. Looking at the painting in the context of Testa’s art theory and philosophy, his role in Roman society and his relationship with Poussin and other artists, will shed light on many issues that were important to the artist at this stage of his career.

Stefan Albl studied art history in Vienna and Rome. He was a fellow at the Austrian Historical Institute in Rome in 2011/2012 and at the Fondazione di Studi Roberto Longhi in Florence in 2012/2013. In 2014 he completed his Ph.D. Dissertation on Pietro Testa as a painter. Since 2014 he has been a scientific assistant at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, working on Italian painting and drawing in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, as well as on art theory and philosophy in the Baroque era.