During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,
European artists fanatically
copied Greek and Roman originals and faithfully
imitated their styles as a tribute to European
Classical heritage. This sculpture of a horse
head recalls the famed fragment of the horse of
Selene from the east pediment of the Parthenon,
brought to London by Lord Elgin and displayed at
the British Museum in 1816.
The ancient Greeks revered horses as the most
beautiful and perfectly created of all animals,
being the handiwork of Poseidon. Those who
were wealthy enough to own horses derived
prestige from their holdings and often gave
names to their children that hinted at the
family’s connection to horses. For the Romans,
the social class just below that of the senatorial
was the equestrian class, commonly known
today as knights. That is to say that these
families were wealthy enough to own horses and
in warfare, their sons were eligible to serve in
the
cavalry.
The head rears, the mane billows, nostrils flare.
The eyes and ears show
the alertness of an animal driven into the heat of
battle by a rider bent on victory. Who knows
what purpose this figure served to the rest of the
composition? It is tantalizing to imagine what the
rest of the sculpture may have been and whose
legs sat astride the back of this horse. The
craftsmanship is spectacular, combining realism
and intense emotion – a testament to the nobility
of the horse and those who rode them, as well as
a tribute to the Classical heritage of European
art.
