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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1976.6
Title
Fragment of architectural frieze plaque: armed riders (from frieze depicting procession of armed riders)
Other Titles
Title: Fragmentary Relief with Two Mounted Warriors
Classification
Sculpture
Work Type
sculpture
Date
c. 520 BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Rome (Latium)
Find Spot: Europe, Italy, Lazio
Period
Archaic period
Culture
Italic
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/288586

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Terracotta
Technique
Mold-made
Dimensions
H. 13 × W. 15.5 × D. 3.7 cm (5 1/8 × 6 1/8 × 1 7/16 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Caprifico di Torrecchia, near Cisterna di Latina, Italy. Schimmel Foundation, Inc. (by 1976), gift; to the Harvard Art Museums.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of SCHIMMEL FOUNDATION,INC.
Accession Year
1976
Object Number
1976.6
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Description
Fragment of a molded terracotta plaque, broken on all sides. Flat on the back. A great deal of brown dirt or accretion in the crevices.

Two armed riders on horses (two, though the second, further-away horse is only visible at its neck and the top of its head) face left; the two pairs overlap, with the frontmost rider and horse blocking most of the backmost pair. The second, further-away horse is “behind”—i.e., to the right, of the frontmost horse; the second rider is “in front” of the frontmost rider—i.e., to the left.

The frontmost rider holds a round shield in front of his body. He wears a helmet with large cheek pieces and an upward projecting element on the front; the top of the helmet is not fully preserved. His left arm, wearing a short sleeve, projects behind him; it is broken at or before the elbow. He wears greaves (which are worn and difficult to ascertain). His heel is preserved but his foot is otherwise broken off. The broken edge of the fragment runs from under the round shield to the rider’s heel.

The second rider wears a helmet or a cap (broken off at top); it is not easy to discern a cheek piece on the fragment (though other examples of this scene suggest that he wears a helmet with a cheekpiece).

The frontmost horse’s ears stand up, as does its hogged mane. The horse’s bridle is visible only faintly. Also faintly visible are reins (as a thin molded line) that run from the horse’s head (the forepart of which is lost at the break), across its neck, to behind the rider’s shield.

To the right of the horse’s mane, a right hand holds a linear element; comparison with other examples from this mold indicates that this element is a whip. This hand may belong to the second (further-away) rider.
Commentary
This fragment comes from a terracotta frieze used to decorate a temple roof (dating to around 520 BCE) in Latium, an ancient region in central Italy, at a site now called Caprifico di Torrecchia, near Cisterna di Latina, Italy. Some scholars have identified this site with the ancient city of Pometia, but this identification remains unconfirmed.

The whole scene, which was repeated to line the edge of roofing elements, showed three pairs of armed riders running to the left, with (from left to right) a hare, a dog, and a deer underneath the horses, made with what Patricia S. Lulof has described as “Mould 2” in her reconstruction of the terracotta roofing elements.[1] This fragment comes from the third pair of riders (rightmost in the scene). According to Lulof’s reconstruction, it belonged to either a revetment plaque (more likely) or a raking sima; if the latter, it would have been used for the right slope of the pediment.

Architectural terracottas made with the same molds were also used for several temple roofs in the city of Rome; these are called the “Rome-Caprifico decorative system” for roofs. They were likely products of a workshop (or related workshops) that also made terracotta roofing elements for temples that have been found at Rome, Velletri, and Veii. The Caprifico temple belongs to an uptick in public (including temple) building in central Italy (Latium and Etruria) in the final thirty years of the 6th century BCE and the first decades of the 5th century BCE. Some scholars have sought to connect this flurry of building and the iconography of the roof decorations to the expansionary activities of the last king of Rome, Tarquinius Superbus (traditional dates of reign: 534-509 BCE).

According to Lulof’s reconstruction of the Caprifico roof’s elements, the pediment’s slopes were decorated with raking simas and revetment plaques, while the eaves were decorated with lateral simas, spouts, and antefixes, under which were additional revetment plaques. Four frieze scenes (mold 1: chariot race to the right; mold 2: riders to the left; mold 3: procession to the right; mold 4: procession to the left) used for the raking simas and accompanying revetment plaques; rows of concave tongues (molds 5a and 5b) were also used for raking simas, lateral simas (along the eaves), and revetment plaques; a frieze of a cross meander with stars and birds (mold 6) was used for revetment plaques; and lion-headed spouts (mold 7) and female-headed (mold 8) antefixes were used for the lateral simas.

That this fragment belongs to the Caprifico roof was confirmed in 1977, when this fragment (1976.6) was found to join with a cast made from a fragment that was, at that time, in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford). The original fragment is now in the collection of the Museo della Città e del Territorio di Cori, Italy (Inv. No. 1973.306).

[1] Patricia S. Lulof. 2010. "Manufacture and Reconstruction". In Il tempio arcaico di Caprifico di Torrecchia (Cisterna di Latina): i materiali e il contesto, edited by D. Palombi, 79-111. Roma: Quasar. P. 83. For a full account of the temple roof (including a catalog of known fragments), see especially the edited volume Domenico Palombi, ed. 2010. Il tempio arcaico di Caprifico di Torrecchia (Cisterna di Latina): i materiali e il contesto. Roma: Quasar.

Publication History

  • Patricia S. Lulof, Marielle de Reuver, and Loes Opgenhaffen, The Architectural Terracottas from Caprifico, Il tempio arcaico di Caprifico di Torrecchia (Cisterna di Latina): i materiali e il contesto, ed. Domenico Palombi, Quasar (Rome, 2010), 25-78, p.33 Cat. B39, fig. 80

Related Works

Verification Level

This record was created from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator; it may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu