Galloping Horse

This prancing or galloping horse wears a bridle and harness but not saddle. Its modeling is naturalistic, with the head, hooves, mane, and tail all rendered in great detail. The tang in the remaining rear left hoof was probably for mounting. While this horse is unlikely to be ancient, based on stylistic and technical analysis, it is worth noting that the motif of a rearing horse was known in antiquity and similar horses have appeared in old collections (1). It also bears some similarities to the rearing sixteenth-century horse statuette created by Benvenuto Cellini for an Etruscan rider figurine, thought to be modeled on a sculpture of Demetrius Poliorcetes, and displayed together in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Florence (2). NOTES: 1. See E. Walde-Psenner, 1984, “Die figürlichen Bronzen in den ‘Inscriptiones’ von Anton Roschmann (1756),” in U. Gehrig, ed., Toreutik und figürliche Bronzen römischer Zeit: Akten der 6. Tagung über antike Bronzen 13.-17. Mai 1980 in Berlin, 239-46, esp. 240, no. 3, recorded in the mid-eighteenth century as a Roman object found in Austria. The author notes that it is difficult to determine from the drawing whether the original horse was ancient; the style, pose, and hoof-tangs are very similar to the Harvard example. Compare also a group with a rearing Bucephalus with Alexander and a companion horse statuette from Herculaneum in G. Calcani, Cavalieri di bronzo: La torma di Alessandro opera di Lisippo, Studia Archaeologica 53 (Rome, 1989) figs. 6, 56-58, and 61-62. Compare also similar motifs depicted in mosaic, stone, and fresco in ibid., figs. 7, 59, 69, and 76-93. 2. Inv. no. 91446; see Calcani 1989 (supra 1) figs. 72-73. Lisa M. Anderson