Do we know if ancient busts (statues) of people are accurate representations of what they actually looked like?

by OutofPlaceOneLiner

Or did artists hop on each others ideas and eventually everyone has the same mental image of what they look like (western jesus).

Lowesy

Unlikely, many statues particularly in the ancient world were based off other images.

A major figure in the world of Ancient Portraiture is Alexander, Stuart,A argues he is the most influential figure in history. This is because you get a lot of people styling themselves off of his looks, particularly Augustus and the Prima Porta, and Pompey Magnus who both take on the ideas of the curled hairs and the slightly pushed up hair at the front that appeared in some images of Alexander.

But even Alexander was not immune from being based off other peoples images, for example, the Macedonian kings would trace their linage back to Heracles and therefore in images they would present this iconography, for example wearing a lions mane, clubs and bows. The Lion's mane could be argued to influence the curls of the hair of Alexander. Some of the statues of Alexander have him stood in the Doryphoros stance (Spear bearer) and the Prima Porta too has been compared to this stance. When looking at coins we see Alexander with Horns on his head, Particularly on those minted by Ptolemy just after his death, while this is obvious that Alexander didn't have horns out of his head it was used to link to the gods.

BaffledPlato