In the foreground, at right, the sculpture of a horse; in the background, various small archaic sculptures
The Sculpture of a Horse is an Archaic bronze sculpture. It was discovered at Olympia during excavations in 1939 and is now displayed in the Archaeological Museum of Olympia. The sculpture's creation is dated to the early 7th century BC.
The sculpture is 45.5 cm high and 47 cm long. It was discovered in an archaic fountain under the mosaic floor of the House of Nero. It is heavily dented, but almost entirely intact; only the ends of the legs and the tail have been broken off. The curved tail had been snapped off, but it has been reattached to the sculpture. Originally, the sculpture would have been about half a metre tall.
The horse is artistically and stylistically modest, and its execution is not outstanding, but it is of great art historical interest. It represents a unique transitional piece, between the small scale of the Geometric style and the larger scale of the Archaic period, in which it was attempted to expand a smaller figure using traditional techniques. The sculpture was made from two pieces which were cast separately as solid blocks and then connected to each other. The casting technique was not suitable for sculptures of this size and the attempt to connect the two pieces without visible seam failed. The two pieces both show casting defects as well. Unsuccessful attempts to transfer Geometric small scale sculpture to a larger scale, like this, probably resulted in the development of hollow casting in the course of the 7th century BC. As the sole surviving work of this kind, the sculpture of a horse is of great significance for understanding the history of metal casting. Probably, the sculpture was intended to be a monument commemorating a victorious horse in the ancient Olympic Games.
Bibliography
Hans-Volkmar Herrmann: "Pferd." In Alfred Mallwitz, Hans-Volkmar Herrmann (ed.): Die Funde aus Olympia. Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, Athen 1980, pp. 125–126.
Ancient art refers to the many types of art produced by the advanced cultures of ancient societies with different forms of writing, such as those of ancient China, India, Mesopotamia, Persia, Palestine, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. The art of pre-literate societies is normally referred to as prehistoric art and is not covered here. Although some pre-Columbian cultures developed writing during the centuries before the arrival of Europeans, on grounds of dating these are covered at pre-Columbian art and articles such as Maya art, Aztec art, and Olmec art.
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Archaic Greece was the period in Greek history lasting from c. 800 BC to the second Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BC, following the Greek Dark Ages and succeeded by the Classical period. In the archaic period, Greeks settled across the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea: by the end of the period, they were part of a trade network that spanned the entire Mediterranean.
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The Artemision Bronze is an ancient Greek sculpture that was recovered from the sea off Cape Artemision, in northern Euboea, Greece. According to most scholars, the bronze represents Zeus, the thunder-god and king of gods, though it has also been suggested it might represent Poseidon. The statue is slightly over lifesize at 2.09 meters, and would have held either a thunderbolt, if Zeus, or a trident if Poseidon. The empty eye-sockets were originally inset, probably with bone, as well as the eyebrows, the lips, and the nipples. The sculptor is unknown. The statue is a highlight of the collections in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.
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The Archaeological Museum of Olympia is one of the principal museums of Greece, located in Olympia. It is overseen by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, and, as of 2009, is directed by Georgia Xatzi. When the original building was completed and opened in 1888, it was the first museum in Greece outside of Athens.
Iberian sculpture, a subset of Iberian art, describes the various sculptural styles developed by the Iberians from the Bronze Age up to the Roman conquest. For this reason it is sometimes described as Pre-Roman Iberian sculpture.
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The Group of Zeus and Ganymede is a multi-figure Late Archaic Greek terracotta statue group, depicting Zeus carrying the boy Ganymede off to Mount Olympus. It was created in the first quarter of the fifth century BC and is now displayed near where it was originally found in the Archaeological Museum of Olympia.
The Winged Gorgoneion is a bronze shield decoration from the first half of the 6th century BC, which served as an apotropaion on a shield. It was found during the excavations at Olympia and is now in the Archaeological Museum of Olympia.
Etruscan sculpture was one of the most important artistic expressions of the Etruscan people, who inhabited the regions of Northern Italy and Central Italy between about the 9th century BC and the 1st century BC. Etruscan art was largely a derivation of Greek art, although developed with many characteristics of its own. Given the almost total lack of Etruscan written documents, a problem compounded by the paucity of information on their language—still largely undeciphered—it is in their art that the keys to the reconstruction of their history are to be found, although Greek and Roman chronicles are also of great help. Like its culture in general, Etruscan sculpture has many obscure aspects for scholars, being the subject of controversy and forcing them to propose their interpretations always tentatively, but the consensus is that it was part of the most important and original legacy of Italian art and even contributed significantly to the initial formation of the artistic traditions of ancient Rome. The view of Etruscan sculpture as a homogeneous whole is erroneous, there being important variations, both regional and temporal.
Archaic Greek sculpture represents the first stages of the formation of a sculptural tradition that became one of the most significant in the entire history of Western art. The Archaic period of ancient Greece is poorly delimited, and there is great controversy among scholars on the subject. It is generally considered to begin between 700 and 650 BC and end between 500 and 480 BC, but some indicate a much earlier date for its beginning, 776 BC, the date of the first Olympiad. In this period the foundations were laid for the emergence of large-scale autonomous sculpture and monumental sculpture for the decoration of buildings. This evolution depended in its origins on the oriental and Egyptian influence, but soon acquired a peculiar and original character.
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