Walking Horse "after Lysippus"

Description This graceful, elegant creature is a small-scale copy of one of the four life-size walking horses on the facade of the Basilica of St. Mark in Venice. In the Renaissance, they were thought to have been cast by the great Greek sculptor Lysippus, and, therefore, reduced copies were in great demand. The life-size horses were originally from a "quadriga" (four-horse chariot) of a type installed atop a triumphal arch in ancient Rome. In the 4th century, Emperor Constantine took the horses to his new capital Constantinople (present-day Istanbul, Turkey). In the 1200s, they were stolen by Crusaders, who brought them to Venice.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
11/01/1958	Treatment	cleaned
1/09/1967	Treatment	cleaned
1/01/1970	Treatment	cleaned; other
3/14/1978	Treatment	cleaned; coated; loss compensation
12/14/1987	Treatment	cleaned
12/14/1987	Examination	examined for condition
4/27/1995	Loan Consideration	examined for loan

Exhibitions

• World of Wonder. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1971-1972.
• The Allure of Bronze. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1995.

Provenance Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1922-1930 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1922-1930