Sculpture of seated horse
Duruthy, Landes, France
Sandstone
Length: 13.8 cms
Musée Archéologique d’Arthous, Hastingues
950903 79.1.3
This kneeling horse is a masterpiece sculpted from a block of yellowish sandstone discoloured to a reddish brown colour by the rockshelter sediments. It has more volume than any other known sculpture of the period. It represents the whole animal with its legs bent beneath it in a kneeling position. The legs are not sculpted in detail unlike the upper body to which the artist gave attention and vitality. The work was achieved by scraping out the contours and volumes of the body and incising the details but some small scars caused by the removal of little flakes by percussion with a soft hammer also occur on the left side of the base.
The posture of the horse is exactly proportioned and realistic. The short head is slightly turned and the ears, sculpted in relief, are laid back indicating that the horse is resting and relaxed. The oval eyes, nostrils and details of the chin are naturalistically incised and the forelock and line of the mane are quite evident. Viewed from above, the line of back, the volume of the hindquarters and the base of the tail are well proportioned. The sculpture was found resting on five fragments from actual horse chins including some of the front and canine teeth. Contained by two of these fragments were two wolf teeth and a stone knife. Nearby, within a radius of about sixty centimetres, there were two horse skulls and two more sculpted horse heads. This strange assemblage suggested to the excavator that the sculpture did not just depict a horse but the horse, a sacred animal or spirit helper seen in repose. It is an opinion perhaps supported by position of this site at the base of cliff that provides remarkable views across the landscape and the fact that this is one of the few sites in the Pyrenees containing human burials: a man and a woman.
The two smaller horse heads made of limestone and ivory from the assemblage are equally impressive and may well have been made by the same sculptor as they exhibit the same skill and practice.
Close