The Rampin Rider
Rampin Master · About 550 BC
A young horseman sits on a small, sturdy horse, his head turned to look at us with a faint smile and a crown of oak leaves in his elaborately curled hair. He is the oldest large equestrian statue to survive from Greece, carved around 550 BC, and probably stood on the Acropolis as one of a pair, a memorial to a victory in the horse races at the great festivals or a dedication by an aristocratic family proud of its stables. The head displayed here is a cast. The original head is in the Louvre in Paris, where it arrived in 1896 through a collector named Georges Rampin, who gave the rider his name.
The body and horse were found on the Acropolis in 1886, and it was only in 1936 that the British archaeologist Humfry Payne noticed that the Louvre head fitted the break on the Athenian torso exactly. The two have been shown together as a cast ever since. Look at the incredible finish of the hair and beard, carved into tight bead-like curls that were once painted in bright colours, and at the way the rider's head turns diagonally away from the line of the horse, an unusual and lively touch for so early a work. Traces of red and black paint survive on the horse and on the rider's hair.
The sculptor, whom we only know as the Rampin Master, carved several other works found on the Acropolis, including the Peplos Kore, which has a similar face and treatment of hair. Sculptural riders like this one were a favourite dedication of the Athenian aristocracy before the democracy, and after the Persian sack of 480 BC they were buried with the rest of the ruined sanctuary. Notice how small the horse is compared with the rider; Greek horses were pony-sized, and the artist has not exaggerated.
Did You Know? The rider's head in Paris and his body in Athens were matched in 1936 when an archaeologist noticed the break lines fitted.
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