Lyon Biennial of Contemporary Art 2005
In 1529 Albrecht Altdorfer completed his Battle of Issos for Wilhelm IV of Bavaria: a fresco of just over one and a half square metres seething with several thousand soldiers. For this meticulous recreation of Alexander the Great’s last battle in 333 BC – a decisive event for the Western world – the artist drew heavily on the advice of the court historiographer. The standards carried by those of the combatants shown still living bear a detailed accounting of the participants, the prisoners and the dead. Moreover, the Persians confronting Alexander bear a strange resemblance to the Turks who, in 1529, were besieging Vienna. So to what time frame do we assign this work, painted simultaneously in the present, future and past tenses?