Alexander the Great (Alexander III of Macedon)

In the composition (as described by the Roman historian Arrian):   Alexander had been clubbed in the head, shortly after jumping off the wall into the fortress.  The blow had struck his helmet from his head (seen in the lower half of the composition), and knocked one of the two feather plumes from their mountings (this is a symbolic element, visually explaining this incident removed a feather from Alexander's cap).  An arrow had then pierced into Alexander's corslett, just above the breast, and into the lung.  Alexander began to experience breathing difficulties from the injury and a hemorrhage left him prostrate on the ground.  His bodyguards closed ranks over Alexander to protect him until reinforcement (the other figures entering the frame) could whisk him to safety.

Alexander the Great

Possibly the greatest conqueror in the history of military science, the annals often portray Alexander as invincible.  I chose this composition because of the opportunity to show such a venerated martial figure at the exact moment in which he was the most vulnerable during his tenured 10 year military career.  In well over 100 martial engagements throughout his campaign in Asia, and wounded over 26 different times, it was this afternoon in 324 B.C.E. that marked the closest, in actual combat, Alexander came to meeting his death. 

Displeased with the pace and impetus of his troops while besieging a fortress on the modern Chenab River, belonging at that time to the ferocious Mallian tribe, Alexander mounted a ladder against the embankment of the outer walls and climbed to begin the siege by himself.  Once on the other side of the wall, Alexander found himself facing the defending Indian troops with only his three closest bodyguards.  The rest of his army, in a panic after watching Alexander's ascent, clamored in such numbers to follow him they shattered the ladders with their sheer mass weight.  Within the fortress, isolated from the rest of his army, Alexander and his few companions fought to stave off the surging Mallian forces.

In the composition (as described by the Roman historian Arrian):   Alexander had been clubbed in the head, shortly after jumping off the wall into the fortress.  The blow had struck his helmet from his head (seen in the lower half of the composition), and knocked one of the two feather plumes from their mountings (this is a symbolic element, visually explaining this incident removed a feather from Alexander's cap).  An arrow had then pierced into Alexander's corslett, just above the breast, and into the lung.  Alexander began to experience breathing difficulties from the injury and a hemorrhage left him prostrate on the ground.  His bodyguards closed ranks over Alexander to protect him until reinforcement (the other figures entering the frame) could whisk him to safety.