Equestrian Marcus Aurelius

Equestrian Marcus Aurelius

c. 161-180 CE.  Most likely dedicated in either 176 CE, on occasion of Marcus's triumph over Germanic tribes, or in 180 CE soon after his death.

unknown

Gilded bronze

424 cm tall

Original location is unknown, though the Roman Forum and the Piazza Colonna (location of the column of Marcus Aurelius) have been proposed.  During the middle ages the statue was displayed in the Lateran Palace until it was moved to the Piazza del Campodoglio in 1538.  In 1981 the statue was relocated to the Capitoline Museum, with a bronze replica installed in the square.

Capitoline Museum, Rome, Italy

Marcus Aurelius (b. 121 d. 180 CE) was co-emperor of Rome, with Lucius Verus, from 160-169 CE, and sole emperor from 169-180 CE, succeeding his adoptive father, Antoninus Pius. He was also a philosopher of some renown, writing the Meditations, a statement of his Stoic philosophy.  Marcus Aurelius died of natural causes on a military campaign against Germanic tribes, and was succeeded as emperor by his son Commodus.

Description:

In this nearly twice-life-sized portrait, Marcus Aurelius is depicted mounted on a warhorse. The rider is dressed in a short tunic and a military cloak (paludamentum), which trails behind him onto the horse's back and sides. His sandals are those of a civil magistrate (calcei senatorii), not a soldier. The rider sits erect, leaning slightly forward, without stirrups, on an ornamented caparison.  The horse stands with three hooves on the ground, and the right front leg lifted dramatically.  Marcus's right hand is extended, palm down, in a gesture of clemency (clementia). The lowered left hand once held the reins (now lost). The rider has a full unclipped beard, curly hair, and a placid, benign expression, which contrasts strikingly with the agitation of the horse's head and mouth. Marcus's gaze is directed downward and to the right, to a point immediately in front of the horse. The horse's head is also turned slightly down and to the right.

Significance:

Though equestrian portaits were common during the empire, this is the only complete statue of a mounted rider to survive from imperial Rome. The statue's preservation is the fortunate result of its being mistaken as a portrait of the Christian emperor Constantine the Great. The pose of horse and rider is very similar to a mounted figure on the arch of Marcus Aurelius, where the emperor renders the gesture of clementia to kneeling captives in front of his horse.  This fact, along with independent documentary evidence, has led scholars to conclude that this equestrian portrait once included a kneeling captive (now lost) beneath the horse's raised right leg. Despite the pacific gesture of the rider and the near stationary pose of the horse, the entire statue radiates a great power and a barely suppressed energy that comports with the frenetic activity of Marcus's reign.

The rider's lack of weapons and the civilian footware may allude to Marcus's desire to be seen as a bringer of peace, rather than simply as a conquering war hero. As a monumental role portrait, the statue thus combines two aspects of Marcus's principate that he wishes to emphasize: martial triumphalism and pacific equanimity.

Fittschen, Klaus and Paul Zanker. Katalog der romischen
    Portrats in den Capitolischen Museen und den anderen
    kommunalen Sammlungen der Stadt Rom. Band 1, Verlag
    Philipp von Zabern, 1985, pp. 72-74.

Kleiner, Diana. Roman Sculpture. Yale University Press, 1992, 
    pp. 270-272.

Musei Capitolini tutte le opere,   www.museicapitolini.org/en/percorsi/percorsi_per_sale/museo_del_palazzo_dei_conservatori/esedra_di_marco_aurelio/statua_equestre_di_marco_aurelio

Wood, Shakespere. The Capitoline Museum of Sculpture: A
    Catalogue. Printing Office of the Propaganda Fide, Rome,
    1872, pp. 10-11.

Mark Weadon