# Magnanimity of Alexander the Great [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MIGNARD, Pierre]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 298 x 451 cm ## Commentary Magnanimity of Alexander the Great 1689 Oil on canvas, 298 x 451 cm The Hermitage, St. Petersburg Charles Le Brun's dictatorship at the field of arts lasted till the death of Colbert in 1683. The latter's successor, Louvois, had for many years been a supporter of Le Brun's rival, Pierre Mignard, by whom Le Brun found himself gradually displaced. In 1689 Louvois brought to a head the rivalry between his favourite and Le Brun by commissioning from Mignard a Tent of Darius in direct competition with Le Brun's acknowledged masterpiece. Mignard painting, titled in the Hermitage as Magnanimity of Alexander the Great, was at the time much admired, though to us it seems tired and hollow, lacking the gusto of Le Brun's design and missing equally the classical poise and harmony of Domenichino and Poussin, the two models whom Mignard seems to have followed. ## Related artworks - [Clio]() - [Equestrian Portrait of Louis XIV]() - [Girl Blowing Soap Bubbles]() - [God the Father]() - [Mystic Marriage of St Catherine]() - [Perseus and Andromeda]() - [Portrait of Edouard Colbert, Marquis de Villacerf]() - [Portrait of Françoise-Marguerite, Countess of Grignan]() - [Portrait of Philippe of France, Duke of Orléans]() - [Self-Portrait]() - [The Heavenly Glory]() - [The Marquise de Seignelay and Two of her Children]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()