LARGE HORSE'S HEAD Roman art, 2nd century Bigio morato Length : 60,3 cm Provenance Former private collection, Austria, 1950s Ex Christie's NY, 9 June 2003, lot 176 European private collection Sculpted in a naturalistic manner, the horse's head is slightly tilted downwards tilted downwards and carries a bridle decorated with rosettes on each side of the side of the girth. The mane is high and thick, separated by deep, hollowed lines that also follow a slope close to reality. The eyes are large and set in the inner corner. The eyelids The eyelids are represented by a hemline which follows the perimeter of the eye. Descending towards the muzzle, some veins appear in slight relief, giving life to the the sculpture. The nostrils are dilated and the open mouth reveals the teeth. Bigio morato is a fine-grained limestone, partially recrystallized also known as nero antico (lapis niger) - widely used in the Hadrianic used during the Hadrianic period for the production of portraits and large large statues such as the statue of the Centaur (fig.1) in Hadrian's Villa, Capitoline Museum, inv. MC658 or the Nike (fig.2), Naples Museum, inv. S.N. As for the life-size equestrian statues, they were also part of part of important commissions, private or imperial, but generally produced in marble or bronze - such as the group of the Fountain of the Dioscuri, Piazza del Quirinale, Rome (fig.3), or the equestrian statue of Mark Nonio Balbus found in Herculaneum and kept in the Museum of Naples. However, if we look closely at the expression and the raised mane of our horse's head, we see an obvious reference to the classical Greek style (fig.4). Finally, the use of this stone for an equestrian statue is very rare. Only one other example of equestrian statue in bigio morato (without head) is kept in the Carthage Museum in Tunisia. A ROMAN HORSE HEAD Circa 2nd century A.D. Bigio morato L. 23 1/4 in. Provenance Old austrian private collection, late 1950's Ex Christie's NY, 9 June 2003, lot 176 English private collection Naturalistically sculpted, the horse's head is angles slightly down, wearing a bridle decorated with rosettes on each side of the strap. The mane is high and thick, divided by deep carved lines in four rows of smooth, pointed locks. The lidded eyes are large and stretched out in the inner corner. Descending towards the muzzle, few veins appear in slight relief, giving life to the sculpture. The nostrils are dilated, the open mouth reveals the teeth. Bigio morato is a partially recrystallized fine-grained limestone also known as nero antico (lapis niger) - widely used during the Hadrianic period for the production of portraits and large-scale statues such as the Centaur statue (fig. 1) from Hadrian's Villa, Capitolini Museum, inv. MC658 or the Nike (fig. 2), Naples Museum, inv. S.N. Life-size equestrian statues were also part of important commissions, private or imperial, but generally produced in marble or bronze - like the group of the Dioscuri fountain, Piazza del Quirinale, Rome (fig. 3), or the equestrian statue of Marc Nonio Balbus found in Herculaneum and kept in the Museum of Naples. However, if one observes carefully the expression as well as the raised mane of our horse's head, one sees in it an obvious reference to the classical Greek style (fig. 4). Finally, the use of this stone for an equestrian statue is very rare. Only one other example of an equestrian statue in bigio morato (headless) is preserved in the Museum of Carthage in Tunisia.