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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1995.15
Title
Horse
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture, statuette
Date
late 6th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Attica
Period
Archaic period
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/302056

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
5.3 x 6.3 x 2 cm (2 1/16 x 2 7/16 x 13/16 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Bronze:
Cu, 93.49; Sn, 5.65; Pb, 0.42; Zn, 0.017; Fe, 0.1; Ni, 0.02; Ag, 0.03; Sb, less than 0.02; As, 0.27; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, less than 0.005; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001
J. Riederer

Technical Observations: The surface of the horse was partially cleaned mechanically, revealing red and green corrosion products. The tail, back, belly, and front ankles have an acetone-soluble gray paint or fill material with light green paint spatters, which may mask repairs, overzealous cleaning, or filled losses. There is gray paint over white fill material in the area where the proper right leg attaches to the body. X-radiography confirms that the proper right front leg has been reattached and filled where it joins the chest, and the ankle and hoof have been doweled and replaced. The tip of the tail also appears to be a replacement.

The horse appears to have been cast in one piece. The fine linear decoration in the mane and tail seem to have been created in the wax.


Tony Sigel (submitted 1999)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, David M. Robinson Fund
Accession Year
1995
Object Number
1995.15
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This slender stallion walks forward with his right legs advanced and his left legs drawn back. His slender proportions suggest a young horse. His head and mane are partially obscured by areas of corrosion and incrustation. However, where the incrustation has broken away, one can see that the mane consists of separated relief locks with extremely fine incision defining the individual groups of hairs. The tail, which extends downward to the level of the hooves, has vertical incisions along its entire length with a double incision running down the back. The spaces between these lines are thickly filled with tiny, closely spaced diagonal incisions. There are traces of shallower incisions marking the muscles on the left rear haunch. There are no indications that there was a rider.

Despite the damage to its surface, this small horse is a spirited rendition of a young stallion. With his long tail stretching down to the hooves, the horse appears to be a direct descendent of the many eighth-century BCE Geometric bronze horses with similar tails that stand on solid or openwork bases. The elongated body and vertically arranged relief locks point to a date somewhere in the second quarter of the sixth century BCE. In particular, the mane calls to mind the arrangements of locks on the heads of horses on the Athenian black-figure “horse-head amphorae” of c. 600-570 BCE (1), as well as those on the mane of the idiosyncratic Archaic equestrian bronze group from Grumentum, southern Italy, now in the British Museum (2). The delicacy of pose, proportions, and incised decoration make an attribution to a bronze-casting center on mainland Greece, perhaps Corinth, attractive. However, the function of this statuette remains unclear. While it could have decorated the rim of a tripod or krater, it may equally well have been intended as a freestanding offering at a sanctuary (3).

NOTES:

1. See A. Birchall, “Attic Horse-Head Amphorae,” Journal of Hellenic Studies 92 (1972): 46-63.

2. See G. P. Carratelli et al., Megale Hellas: Storia e civiltà della Magna Grecia (Milan, 1983) 385, fig. 366.

3. C. Rolley, Greek Bronzes (London, 1986) 60-66.


David G. Mitten

Publication History

  • Jean-Louis Zimermann, Collection de la Fondation Thétis: Développements de l'art grec de la préhistoire à Rome, Editions du Tricorne (Genève, 1987), p. 67, no. 122; 176, no. 122.

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu