Skip to main content

Visit Main Menu Block

  • Hours & Admission
  • Accessibility & Amenities
  • Tours & Group Visits
  • Visitor Guidelines

Exhibitions and Events Main Menu Block

  • Exhibitions
  • Events

Art and Design Main Menu Block

  • The Collection
  • Projects & Publications
  • Past Exhibitions

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Image

Previous 1 2 3 4 5 / 5 Next

Roman

Couch decoration in the form of a horse's head, 100s CE

Now On View

Description

Maker

  • Unknown

Culture

Roman

Title

Couch decoration in the form of a horse's head

Year

100s CE

Medium

Bronze

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • bronze

Techniques

  • lost-wax process

Dimensions

17 x 13.5 x 13.5 cm (6 11/16 x 5 5/16 x 5 5/16 inches)

Type

  • Sculpture

Credit

Museum purchase with funds from Museum Appropriation Fund and Mrs. Gustav Radeke

Object Number

27.221

Projects & Publications

Publications

Selected Works

A Handbook of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design

Classical Bronzes

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Ancient Greek and Roman Galleries

As the symposium was a leisurely occasion, participants customarily reclined on couches (kline) while they drank and conversed. The headrest and footrest of kline were adorned with decorative elements, like this bronze horse head. The panther skin tied around the horse’s neck and the corkscrew curls of the mane are associated with the wine god Dionysus, making this bronze particularly suited to the wine-drinking revelry of the symposium. Although attributed to ancient Rome, this figure’s dramatic details — the flared nostrils, grooved jaw, open mouth, and twisted neck — reflect th heightened sense of realism and emotion in the art of Hellenistic Greece.

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Couch decoration in the form of a horse's head with the accession number of 27.221. To request high-resolution files or new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

RISD Museum

  •  Facebook
  •  Twitter
  •  Instagram
  •  Vimeo
  •  Pinterest
  •  SoundCloud

Footer Main

  • Become a Member
  • Give
  • Who We Are
  • Opportunities
  • Rent the Museum

Footer Secondary

  • Image Request
  • Press Office
  • Rent the Museum
  • Terms of Use