DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15098#0226
156
to represent a sacred solemnity, we might presume that these two
persons were remarking contemptuously upon the character and
defects of the animal before them, and that their observations
were not well relished by the owner. The animal, it must be
acknowledged, is very dissimilar to those which have been hitherto
the subject of so much admiration ; he is long legged, weak in the
haunches, lanky about the loins, and altogether by no means
answering to the description given by Xenophon of a valuable
horse. If we may judge from the appearance of the other horses,
this animal has not been groomed with the same skill, or rather
in the same taste, with the rest; his mane is not cut short or
hogged, but allowed its full growth, and carefully combed and
parted, so that a portion may hang down on each side of the
neck. Whether we have given a right interpretation of the
motive of this composition may well be doubted, for, besides that
the satirical spirit it supposes would be out of place upon such
an occasion, we are not sure that the defects of the animal, which
are supposed to occasion such criticisms, are not owing to the
inefficiency of the artist employed to execute, and not of him who
furnished the design ; the workmanship is in many parts very in-
ferior to that of the other slabs. The form of the left leg of the
central figure, the exaggeration of the muscles about the knees
of the one before the horse, the form and position of the horse's
ear, are all indications of the hand of an inferior artist; and
the loose mane could not have retained the position in which we
see it, while the animal's head was thus bent towards the ground.
to represent a sacred solemnity, we might presume that these two
persons were remarking contemptuously upon the character and
defects of the animal before them, and that their observations
were not well relished by the owner. The animal, it must be
acknowledged, is very dissimilar to those which have been hitherto
the subject of so much admiration ; he is long legged, weak in the
haunches, lanky about the loins, and altogether by no means
answering to the description given by Xenophon of a valuable
horse. If we may judge from the appearance of the other horses,
this animal has not been groomed with the same skill, or rather
in the same taste, with the rest; his mane is not cut short or
hogged, but allowed its full growth, and carefully combed and
parted, so that a portion may hang down on each side of the
neck. Whether we have given a right interpretation of the
motive of this composition may well be doubted, for, besides that
the satirical spirit it supposes would be out of place upon such
an occasion, we are not sure that the defects of the animal, which
are supposed to occasion such criticisms, are not owing to the
inefficiency of the artist employed to execute, and not of him who
furnished the design ; the workmanship is in many parts very in-
ferior to that of the other slabs. The form of the left leg of the
central figure, the exaggeration of the muscles about the knees
of the one before the horse, the form and position of the horse's
ear, are all indications of the hand of an inferior artist; and
the loose mane could not have retained the position in which we
see it, while the animal's head was thus bent towards the ground.