*REPLICA*Bronze statuette of a horse (plaster cast reproduction of original bronze dating to 1 st Century AD)
Accession Number- unknown.
Physical Description: The statuette is a plaster cast reproduction after a bronze statuette of a horse dating to the 1 st Century AD. The original is in the Museum’s main collections.
Visual Analysis: The piece demonstrates the variations of technique existing in the period when
Greek styles were being assimilated and developed to fit Roman needs. The horse seems rather lifeless and rigid, and it is assumed that the figure was not modeled after firsthand observation of life and movement, rather the inspiration was from an idea or another work of art.
Function: Decorative
Historical Context: Roman copies of Greek originals- In the past, Roman copies of Greek originals were thought to be significant only because they reflected famous Greek masterpieces.
Scholars used the surviving texts of such ancient writers as Pliny the Elder and Pausanias, who described famous Greek masterworks, in conjunction with extant Roman marble copies to reconstruct the oeuvre of a Greek master. In recent years Roman copies have been evaluated as works of Roman art and as illustrations of the Roman taste of a given period. Closely allied with the study of Roman copies as works of Roman art is the question of whether the Romans desire exact replicas and were capable of producing them through mechanical copying.
Original: On View: Gallery 164
Accession number: 23.69
When this bronze horse (the original) was first acquired in 1923, its austere majesty led to its identification as an Early Classical masterpiece of the fifth century B.C. It was long heralded as artistically the most important single object in the Museum's Classical collection. In the late
1960s, its authenticity was questioned on technical grounds, causing an international uproar and intense scholarly debate. After extensive scientific analysis, including thermoluminescence dating of its clay core, its authenticity was vindicated. However, reconsideration of its stylistic features in light of our current knowledge of the reuse of earlier styles in Hellenistic art has led to a more probable dating in the Late Hellenistic period.
In the Classical period, such large statuettes were primarily religious in nature. Bronze horse or horse-and-rider statuettes were typically placed on the tops of columns set up at sanctuaries by the animal's owner in commemoration of one or more victories in the horse races held at the
Panhellenic sanctuaries of Olympia, Delphi, Isthmia, and Nemea. This practice continued in
Hellenistic times, when other uses were also possible for such a sculpture of a horse. For example, it could have decorated a private home. It could also have been made for the Roman art market, for which many Greek artists were producing works in the Classical style in the first century B.C.