Italian artist Alessandro Tomasi has reconstructed the faces of ancient Greek and Roman philosophers and statesmen using statues and busts kept in various museums around the world as reference.

Tomasi, who is based in Florence, has gained thousands of followers in social media around the globe for his painstaking work of bringing the past back to life by reconstructing the faces of the ancient Greeks.

Plato: the most important Ancient Greek philosopher

In his quest to reconstruct the faces of the most prominent ancient Greek and Roman figures, Tomasi highlighted Plato.

Plato was one of the most influential thinkers in the history of philosophy. Plato’s concepts laid the groundwork for Ancient Greek and western philosophy and are still considered immensely influential to this day.

His contributions are easily recognizable across education, politics, ethics, epistemology, and psychology. The twentieth century thinker Alfred North Whitehead once described European philosophy as “a series of footnotes to Plato.”

Reconstructing Aristotle’s face

Aristotle founded a school in Macedonia in northern Greece in the 4th century BC. His aim was to teach the greatness and breadth of scientific and philosophical knowledge derived from classical Greek thought.

The ideals of Platonic philosophy, along with knowledge of the natural world, were taught to Alexander the Great, the son of the King of Macedonia, Philip II, alongside other nobles of the Macedonian court.

According to Plutarch, Aristotle taught “the ethical and political word” of that era to the Macedonian nobility’s young offspring with philosophy, politics, literature, mathematics, and war strategies being among the topics covered by Aristotle.

The face of Alexander the Great

Alexander himself, Aristotle’s student, was also reconstructed by Tomasi.

Alexander III, the “Basileus of Macedon,” the “Hegemon of the Hellenic League,” the “Shahanshah” of Persia, the “Pharaoh” of Egypt, and the “Lord of Asia”—better known as Alexander the Great—was one of the most significant figures in human history.

Born in Pella in modern-day Central Macedonia, in northern Greece, in 356 B.C., he was the son of Philip II, the King of Macedon and his wife, Olympias. But Alexander was no royal place-holder. He became renowned at a very early age for both for his military and political capabilities.

Alexander famously led thousands of soldiers east. What are now the modern-day countries of Turkey, Syria, Israel, Egypt, and the entirety of the modern-day Arab world became Greek in less than ten years’ time. In a few short years, Alexander had conquered all the way east to the western borders of India.

Artist reconstructs Homer, the greatest ancient Greek poet