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image of success, victory, and strong Greek values. The obverse of the coins shows the head of the deified
Alexander, wearing the royal diadem and the ram's horn, a direct allusion to his being the son of the Egyptian deity of Zeus Ammon, also showing him clean shaven to show his youthfulness, and possible naive state. This paying respect to Alexander carries the implicit connotation of Lysimachos’ own regal and military qualities, admirably demonstrated through his victory at the crucial battle of Ipsos in 301 BC. As it appears on the coins, Alexander's head comes close enough to Plutarch's descriptions and the extant marble heads in the Lysippan tradition, for it to be quite possible that Pyrgoteles was responsible for the design of the Lysimachi, presumably working for the Thracian court after the dissolution of Alexander's empire, but again there is no proof of Pyrgoteles being the master mind behind these coins for King Lysimachos.
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165:. The Greeks inherited seal engraving, along with other accomplishments from people and travelers of the near East. Apart from the penchant for the scarab form in the sixth century, the art quickly Hellenized and became a favorite medium for virtuosity. The Greek gem cutters introduced the scarab to Italy, where is continued to be adopted to
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With some sourcing speaking of his forgeries as if authentic and others only giving
Prygoteles the label of gem engraver to Alexander. Various texts suggest that next to gem-engraving, Pyrgoteles was responsible for coin dies as well, and coinage was one of the main forms of propaganda and marketing of images in the ancient times.
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Unfortunately, every thing else respecting
Pyrgoteles is left to the unknown, due to the neglect of ancient writers and modern forgers, lack of remains, and so many copies coming out of that same time period. There are several works under the name of Pyrgoteles, but of these the best known have been
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Despite the large impact that
Pyrgoteles contributed to Alexander's imagery in the ancient world, we are today unable to identify all that much of his actual output. No signed pieces of his survive, or are able to be deemed authentic; however, when comparing sources this seems to be up in the air.
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of Thrace starting in 297/6 BC and made by
Pyrgoteles. Lysimachos was at the time emerging victorious from the wars against his fellow-claimants of Alexander's political and territorial legacy, and he chose to illustrate his coins with a posthumous portrait of their common predecessor, giving an
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was the standard medium for diffusing royal imagery in the
Hellenistic period and allowed emperors to be remembered and altered to fit the aspects of culture in said time periods. Alexander never had his actual portrait cut on his coins during his lifetime; however, after his image was highly
266:"Catalogue of the Engraved Gems and Finger Rings. I. Greek and Etruscan. (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.) By Boardman John and Vollenweider Marie-Louise. 28·5 × 22·5 cm. Pp. xii + 122 + 13 figs. + 64 pls. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978. £25·00"
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In modern times this famous name has been engraved as a forged signature on ancient gems; the gem cutter
Alessandro Cesari (16th century) adopted the name of his famous predecessor and signed his works accordingly. The name inscription
169:, and the Estruscans eventually tagged along as well. Gem engraving and coins were a new curated art form that, much like most Greek art, was admired and copied and taken on to show politics, mythology and historical events.
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to be forgeries, and very few of the others have any signs to authenticity due to the mass production of pieces with the name
Pyrgoteles on them or just a "P".
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In terms of work he did outside of engraving for
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Alexander had issued an edict forbidding anyone to engrave his image on emeralds, and other gems, outside of Pyrgoteles.
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produced in the later years after his death, though it is possible that Pyrgoteles was responsible for designing Alexander's first
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Pyrgoteles was one of the three court artists authorized to depict Alexander the Great's figure in art (the others being
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can be found. This causes much confusion when it comes to identifying authentic works of Prygoteles.
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Who's Who in the Age of Alexander the Great by: Waldemar Heckel
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for the king. (Plin. H. N. vii. 37. s. 38, xxxvii. 1. s. 4.)
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