The expression exuviae elephantis defines the iconographic attribute of the elephant, worn as headgear. In classical art, there are three figures characterized with this attribute: Alexander the Great, the personification of Africa, and the personification of the city of Alexandria in Egypt. Alongside these three figures there are other images that took possession, in imitation or for analogy, of the attribute of the elephant's head. This essay outlines the history of this iconographic attribute, showing its transition from one image to another, through a path that winds through the centuries and continents – Asia, Africa and Europe – leading from India to Rome. The elephant, a trophy and symbol of Alexander the Great's campaign against Porus, the sovereign of India, was inherited by Hellenistic kings in emulation of Alexander, and was later introduced to Rome via Egypt through the Ptolomys and Roman ties with the neo-Punic kings. Having been the attribute of the personification of Alexandria, Numidia, and Mauritania, it becomes, after several centuries, the iconographic attribute not of India, but, as can be seen in Ripa's Iconologia, the iconographic source book published in the Cinquecento, another continent – Africa.

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(Federica Pellati)