Roman

Fragment of Horse and Rider, from a Lion Hunt Sarcophagus
 marble, 270-280 A.D.

The William A. Whitaker Foundation Art Fund, 77.66.1



This fragment comes from a scene of a lion hunt carved in high relief on one side of a third-century Roman sarcophagus. Other fragments from the same sarcophagus belong to the State Collection of Antiquities and Sculpture in Munich. Richly decorated marble sarcophagi became popular in the Roman Empire after the second century, when burial began to be preferred over cremation. The lion hunt was a favorite subject: it depicted the dead man as a hero in life, triumphing over wild beasts, and thus deserving of immortality.

The rearing horse motif, seen here, was common in both hunting and battle scenes. The sculptor has captured the horse's reaction to what we cannot see; the hunted lion. The head turns sharply outward, forcing wrinkles into the marble skin of the neck. The eyes roll upward. The mouth is open, the tongue extended. The horse's marble coat is tight against the bones of the face and the rounded muscles of the body. The taut arc formed by the horse's lifted right foreleg adds to the sense of tension. Even the deeply drilled mane, composed of individual writhing tufts separated by tunnels of space, seems to rise up in fear.

The rider's hand, broken off after the second finger, grips the rein; the bit pulls in the horse's mouth. The diagonal line of the rider's sword handle, a scowling eagle head, leads the eye back to the frightened expression of the horse. Knotted across the horse's breast is a lion skin ending in two lion heads, only one visible to us. Mouth open, fangs displayed, this head suggests the menacing presence of the real lion to which the horse reacts.