WHYTE'S IRISH & INTERNATIONAL ART 26 FEBRUARY 2018

105 Rory Breslin (b.1963) ARTEMISION HORSE STUDY bronze; (no. 2 from an edition of 3) signed and numbered 28 by 29 by 11in. (71.1 by 73.7 by 27.9cm) The sculpture is a study of the horse’s head in one of the most popular and important displays in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens, the bronze Horse and Jockey Group. The group was found in a shipwreck off Cape Artemision, in North Euboea, which was discovered in 1926. The first parts of the equestrian statue were recovered in 1928, with more pieces found in 1936 and possibly 1937. The statue was reassembled, and after restoration went on display at the Museum in 1972. The Horse and Jockey Group is special in being one of the few original large-scale bronzes securely dated to the Hellenistic period. It is approximately life-size in scale and consists of a horse in midgallop, on which is seated a youthful jockey, who looks back over his shoulder. The Horse and Jockey group is unusual in combining an athletic sculpture with an animal. The unknown sculptor of this masterpiece has captured the excitement and vitality of a horserace in mid-action. Some scholars have previously dated the group from the late fourth century B.C. to the first century B.C. The statues have been attributed previously to various sculptors, including Kalamis, Lysippos and the Pergamene school. Seán Hemingway, curator at the Metropolitan Museum in New York and author of The Horse and Jockey from Artemision: A Bronze Equestrian Monument of the Hellenistic Period., concludes that the most likely date for the group is the second half of the second century B.C., based on a combination of classical features and realism in both statues. He gives further consideration of several late Hellenistic shipwrecks carrying cargoes of sculpture (the Antikythera, the Mahdia, and the Artemision) which leads him to conclude that the Horse and Jockey group was plunder of some kind. He builds in his narrative a strong circumstantial case for it having been plundered from Corinth in 146 B.C. by Mummius, who then gave it to his first general, Attalos, who was shipping it to Pergamon when the ship was wrecked in the Trikiri channel north of Euboia. It is believed that of the three likely contexts for the original function of the Horse and Jockey (funerary, decorative, or dedicatory), that the best interpretation is that the group was set up in a sanctuary to honour one or more victories in horse races. The large size of the monument and the high quality of the sculpture suggest commission by a royal or wealthy Greek aristocratic. €5,000-€7,000 (£3,570-£5,000 approx.) Click Here for Large Images & To Bid Lot 105