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Plundering The World’s Art

The Capitoline Museum has unveiled a newly restored ancient Greek horse believed to be part of a group of statues brought to Trastevere at an uncertain date for reuse or melting down. This group included the marble statue of the Apoxyomenos now in the Vatican Museums, the left hindquarter of a colossal bronze bull, and the left foot and leg of a horseman that may have been the rider for this rare 5th-century BC Greek bronze statue of a horse.

Due to similarities with the horses of the Parthenon Frieze, the bronze is dated to between the second half of the 5th century BC and the 4th century BC, when the horse may have been made in Athens. It may possibly be part of the famous group of 34 equestrian riders and horses was later plundered from Greece as war spoils by Quintus Metellus Macedonicus and set up in front of the two temples enclosing the Porticus of Octavia in the Field of Mars in Rome. If that is the case it is the work of Lysippus, casting on the order of Alexander the Great for a monument to commemorate the battle of Granicus in 334 BC.

More likely, the horse was cast by Hegias, who worked in Athens around 490-460 BC, and was according to Pliny’s Natural History, part of the group of the Dioscuri set on the Capitol near the temple of Jupiter by Augustus. The horse was cast in the lost wax technique in separate pieces, then soldered together. An inscription on the left hind leg of the horse, incised L I XXIIX after casting, seems to be an inventory number used when the statue was shipped from Greece to Rome, or is a registry number corresponding to works of art curated in the capital. A letter C on the right shoulder of the horse and XIII on the left possibly reflect changes in the inventory records. The back was left open to allow the statue of a horseman to be fitted above.

 

 

5th-century BC bronze horse found in 1849 in excavations on the Vicolo delle Palme, Trastevere, Rome. Probably crafted by Hegias, on display in the Capitoline Museums Rome.