In the Hellenistic period, the portrait abandoned the canons of classic idealisation, moving away from an approach that favoured the portrayal of idealised features and produced specific "types" (the commander, the philosopher, the politician) towards a portrayal of the individual's personal features that would provide insight to the person behind them. This led to the birth of the private portrait alongside the previously more popular public portrait. The two types of Syracusan portraits fully adhere to Hellenistic canons, both in the pathos elicited by the accentuated inclination of the heads and in a surface rendering that indicates the strong influence of Alexandrian sculpture.