This shallow relief of a youth with his horse and dog was found by the antiquarian Gavin Hamilton in Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli. It shows the young horseman controlling his animal. The rearing horse and the braced legs of the groom, coupled with the backward-flying tail and chlamys (cloak), give the relief great dynamism.
Despite its appearance the relief is probably of Roman date, made for the Palace of the Emperor Hadrian. The sculptor has deliberately imitated the style — and subject — of the late Archaic period
London, British Museum 2206
Transferred from the Archaeological Institute of Göttingen University in August 1991
Verzeichnis der Gipsabgüsse des Archäologischen Instituts der Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, 69, no.A222
Cook: Journal of Hellenic Studies XXXVII (1917), 123
Opper: Hadrian, Empire and Conflict, 158, fig.142
Burn: Greek and Roman Art (1991), 191
Found in 1769 in Hadrian’s Villa at Tivoli outside Rome
