In portrait sculpture meanwhile, besides the idealized portraits, such as those of Alexander the Great, works closer to reality than in the previous period were also produced. With its thick wavy locks falling on either side of the forehead, the slight leftward inclination of the head, and the parted lips and deeply incised facial lines, the portrait of Alexander found at Pergamon and exhibited at the Istanbul Archaeological Museums is one of the best examples of such idealized portraits and of the Pergamon School.

COPYING REALITY
The Hellenistic Kingdoms founded as Alexander’s legacy after his death carried on the artistic traditions of the period. But radical changes emerged in sculpture as these kingdoms began to disappear one by one and the regions came under Roman rule. Although Roman sculpture was in a general sense influenced by the Greek, it developed an art of portraiture unique unto itself. Portraits made under the influence of Egyptian and Etruscan death masks were particularly widespread in the period of the Republic.