Horse Tamers

Horse Tamers

The colossal pair of marble "Horse Tamers", often identified as Castor and Pollux, have stood since Antiquity near the site of the Baths of Constantine on the Quirinal Hill, Rome, too large to be buried or to be moved very far, though Napoleon's agents wanted to include them among the classical booty removed from Rome after the Treaty of Tolentino, 1797 (Haskell and Penny 1981 p 136). They are fourth-century Roman copies of Greek originals. They gave to the Quirinal its medieval name "Monte Cavallo", which lingered into the nineteenth century. Their coarseness has been noted, while the vigor, notably that of the horses, has been admired. The Colossi of the Quirinal are the original exponents of this theme of dominating power, which has appealed to powerful patrons since the seventeenth century, from Marly-le-Roi to Saint Petersburg.

The huge sculptures were noted in the medieval guidebook for pilgrims, "Mirabilia Urbis Romae". Their ruinous bases still bore inscriptions OPUS FIDIÆ and OPUS PRAXITELIS, hopeful attributions that must have dated from Late Antiquity (Haskell and Penny 1981, p 136). The "Mirabilia" confidently reported that these were "the names of two seers who had arrived in Rome under Tiberius, naked, to tell the 'bare truth' that the princes of the world were like horses which had not yet been mounted by a true king." [ Haskell and Penny, p. 136]

Between 1589 and 1591, Sixtus V had them restored [With a corrected" inscription "Phideæ"] and set on new pedestals flanking a fountain, another engineering triumph for Domenico Fontana, who had moved and re-erected the obelisk in Piazza San Pietro. In 1783-86 they were re-set at an angle, and an obelisk, which had recently been found at the Mausoleum of Augustus, was re-erected between them. (The present granite basin, which had served for watering cattle in the Roman Forum was set between them instead in 1818.)

An interpretation of their subject as Alexander and Bucephalus was proposed in 1558 by Onofrio Panvinio ["Reipublicae Romanae Commentariorum" (Venice, 1558), noted by Haskell and Penny, 1981.] , who suggested that Constantine had removed them from Alexandria, where they would have referred to the familiar legend of the city's founder. This became a popular alternative to their identification as the Dioscuri. The popular guides still referred to their creation by Phidias and Praxiteles competing for fame, long after even the modestly learned realized that the two sculptors preceded Alexander by a century.

About 1560 a second pair of colossal marble figures accompanied by horses were unearthed and set up on either side of the entrance to the Campidoglio("illustration, right").

The fame of the Horse Tamers recommended them for other situations where the ruling of base natures by higher nature was iconographically desirable. The "Horses of Marly" made by Nicolas Coustou for Louis XIV at Marly-le-Roi were re-set triumphantly in Paris at the time of the French Revolution, flanking the entrance to the ("illustration, left").

Notes

References

*Francis Haskell and Nicholas Penny, 1981. "Taste and the Antique" Cat. 3, as "Alexander and Bucephalus"

ee also

*Fontana dei Dioscuri, Rome


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • List of Digimon Tamers characters — This is a list of characters from the Digimon anime series Digimon Tamers. Contents 1 Creation and Influences 2 Tamers 2.1 Takato and Guilmon 2.2 Ruki and Renamon …   Wikipedia

  • Guillaume Coustou the Elder — See also: Guillaume Coustou the Younger, nephew of Guillaume the Elder Guillaume Coustou the Elder (November 29, 1677, Lyon February 22, 1746, Paris) was a French sculptor and academician. Coustou was the younger brother of French sculptor… …   Wikipedia

  • Anichkov Bridge — The Anichkov Bridge (Russian: Аничков мост , Anichkov Most ) is the first and most famous bridge across the Fontanka River in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The current bridge, built in 1841 42 and reconstructed in 1906 08, combines a simple form with …   Wikipedia

  • Quirinal Hill — Infobox Hill of Rome name =Quirinal Hill Latin name =Collis Quirinalis Italian name =colle Quirinale rione =Monti buildings =Gardens of Sallust, Baths of Constantine, Torre delle Milizie, Trevi Fountain, churches =Sant Andrea al Quirinale, San… …   Wikipedia

  • Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg — For other members of Clodt von Jürgensburg family, see Clodt von Jürgensburg. Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg Baron Peter Clodt von Jürgensburg, known in Russian as Pyotr Karlovich Klodt (Russian: Пётр Карлович Клодт; 1805 1867), was a favourite… …   Wikipedia

  • Bucephalus — For the branding mark anciently used on horses, see Bucephalus (brand). Bucephalus or Buchephalas (Ancient Greek: polytonic|Βουκέφαλος, from polytonic|βούς bous , ox and polytonic|κεφαλή kephalē , head meaning ox head ) (c. 355 BC ndash; June,… …   Wikipedia

  • Austrian Parliament Building — The Austrian Parliament Building, (German: Parlament or Hohes Haus , formerly the Reichsratsgebäude ), is where the two Houses of the Parliament of Austria conduct their sittings. The building lies at the Ringstraße in the first district Innere… …   Wikipedia

  • Giovanni Antinori — (January 28 1734, Camerino June 24 1792 Rome) was an Italian neoclassical architect. Employed by the papacy, he oversaw the re erecting of three of Rome s obelisks the Quirinale (between the Horse Tamers ), the Sallustian (outside Trinità dei… …   Wikipedia

  • The Nightmare — Infobox Painting| backcolor=#FBF5DF painting alignment=right image size=330px title=The Nightmare artist=Henry Fuseli year=1781 type=Oil on canvas height=101.6 width=127 height inch=40 width inch = 50 diameter cm = diameter inch = museum=Detroit… …   Wikipedia

  • Anna Hyatt Huntington — Anna Vaughn Hyatt Huntington (March 10 1876 – October 4 ,1973) was an American sculptor. She was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Early yearsHer father, Alpheus Hyatt, was a professor of paleontology and zoology at Harvard University and MIT, a… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”