Horsemen from Cape Artemision
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The rider from Cape Artemision , also called the jockey from Cape Artemision , is a roughly life-size bronze group from the Hellenistic period . The group consists of a jumping horse ridden by a young boy.
The work is located in Room XXI of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens and has inventory number X15177.
It is one of the few remaining Greek or Great Greek bronze statues. Also known are the pugilist from the Quirinal , the charioteer from Delphi , the Poseidon from Cape Artemision , the two bronze statues from Riace and the ruler of the thermal baths . There is also a fragment of Chatsworth's Apollo .
history
The first fragments of the Rider of Artemision were found in 1928 in the sea off Cape Artemision at the northern end of Euboia . Further fragments could be recovered until 1936/37. As a result, the group of figures could be restored and reassembled, even if individual parts such as the jockey's whip and the horse's bridle are missing.
Two larger parts of the horse were found a few meters apart, the jockey was not connected to the horse when the work of art was found. When trying to reconstruct the work of art in 1972, some difficulties arose: the right front leg of the horse could not be attached directly to the rest and should actually be positioned higher, the style of the tail is stricter than the rest, the jockey does not sit completely right on the horse to be able to spur it on with both heels, but bends too far to the left. Nevertheless Seán Hemingway pleaded for the found parts to be understood as belonging together.
The bronze group is dated to 140 BC by the museum. BC and thus assigned to the epoch of Hellenism. In older studies, significantly earlier dates up to the late 4th century BC were found. Considered as well as later ones up to the 1st century BC. There were also attempts to attribute the group to various artists, including Kalamis and Lysippos . Hemingway argued in favor of dating to the second half of the 2nd century BC, particularly on the basis of the depiction of the child jockey. Chr. And declared the assignment to a certain artist impossible due to the lack of comparison material. In his opinion, the group of figures consisting of the Ethiopian-Greek jockey and the jumping horse was probably set up in a sanctuary in honor of a victorious rider. Because of the size of the group and the quality of the workmanship, the client was probably a king or a wealthy nobleman, in his opinion.
He suspects that the horseman from Cape Artemision originally stood in Corinth and that he was in 146 BC. Fell victim to the looting by Lucius Mummius . He left the work of art to his general Attalus II . Before Euboia, the transport going to Pergamon - Artemision's Poseidon was also found on board the wreck - was shipwrecked. If this theory corresponds to reality, the work of art would have been created around 150 BC. BC probably.
The group is considered one of the most impressive works on display in the National Archaeological Museum.
description
The bareback horse rises to jump with wide nostrils and ears back. Both hind feet are still on the ground, the front legs are stretched far forward. The hind legs, which have to carry the main weight of the group, are cast from slightly thicker bronze than the rest of the horse.
The rider, a boy around ten to twelve years old, whose facial features suggest an origin from Africa , probably Ethiopia , but who wears a Greek hairstyle, sits bent forward on horseback. He has raised his left hand forward; it is approximately at the level of the horse's mouth. Remnants of the reins that the rider once held in this hand can still be seen, as well as the remains of a bridle in the horse's open mouth. The jockey holds his right hand, clenched in a fist, at hip height. It can be assumed that he once held a whip in this hand. The little rider looks to the left, probably to see an opponent running.
The figure of the rider and the horse's hooves are slightly darker than the horse's body. The eyes of both the rider and the horse, which apparently consisted of different material and were used, have been lost except for a heavily corroded remnant of the rider's right eye. Likewise, a nike figure attached to the horse's right rear thigh like a brand was made of a different material than the horse's body.
A description of the group of figures reads: “It [...] differs fundamentally from the horsemen [...] on the frieze of the Parthenon [...] and represents very well the freedom of expression of the last great period of Greek art , Hellenism, an art that arose in the magnificent courts of the great monarchs, heirs to the empire of Alexander the Great . [...] Everything expresses movement. [...] Perhaps one of the meanings of this impressive masterpiece lies in the relationship between the human being, who is represented here by a little boy, and the limitless power of nature. [...] In the golden age of Greek culture, when the Parthenon was built and adorned, it was believed that man ruled nature. At the time this sculpture was made, Greece was subject to foreign rule. Instead of wanting to dominate nature, the jockey seems to be in a race to an unknown fate, carried away by forces greater than himself. "
In a review of Hemingway's monograph on the work of art, it can be read that bronze statues from the Hellenistic period probably had their place predominantly in public spaces. Above all, deities and heroes, rulers, philosophers and other celebrities, including athletes, were depicted. Animal representations were also created. The combination of animal and athlete portrayal that the Artemision rider has, is an exception.
The bronze group apparently holds a decisive moment in a horse race with individual teams of horse and rider (κέλης). Representations of these races already existed in the orientalizing period in the 7th century BC. Chr .; they were played among other things at the games in Panhellenic sanctuaries and are not only in artistic representations, but also in texts such as B. Winner lists documented.
literature
- Seán Hemingway: The Horse and Jockey from Artemision: A Bronze Equestrian Monument of the Hellenistic Period. University of California Press, Berkeley 2004, ISBN 0-520-23308-5 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Archaeological Museum. Horsemen from Cape Artemision. Room 21 on mywowo.net
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Seán Hemingway, The Horse and Jockey from Artemision: A Bronze Equestrian Monument of the Hellenistic Period. Review by Janet Burnett Grossman in Bryn Mawr Classical Review at www.webcitation.org
- ↑ X15177 at www.webcitation.org