Statuette of a horse (4894)

Statuette of a horse (4894)

The statuette depicts a horse, found in a fragmentary state and extensively restored in the eighteenth century, rearing up on its front hooves. The forelock of horsehair between the ears is fastened by a ribbon, following the custom widely used in the Greek world, also known from the literary sources. The rest of the mane is cut into brush-like hairs along the neck, with a single free lock along the back to provide a handhold for the riders in addition to the reins. There are no traces of the original harnessings: originally, and at the moment of discovery, it would seem that the horse had a chamfron decorated with silver bosses and rosettes. There is a modern support in the form of a rudder on the horse’s belly. Found together with the famous bronze statuette of Alexander on horseback also kept in the Archaeological Museum of Naples (inv. 4996), it could be the riderless copy of one of the statues of the companions of the Macedonian leader in the monumental statuary group made by Lysippus to commemorate the cavalrymen who fell during the battle of the Granicus river (334 B.C.).