Equestrian statue

An equestrian statue is a statue of a horse-mounted rider. The term is from the Latin "eques," meaning "knight". A statue of an unmounted horse is strictly an equine statue.


History
The equestrian Marcus Aurelius on the Capitoline Hill was the prototype for Renaissance equestrian sculptures.
The equestrian Marcus Aurelius on the Capitoline Hill was the prototype for Renaissance equestrian sculptures.
Bertel Thorvaldsen's neoclassicist equestrian statue of Prince Józef Poniatowski, Warsaw.
Bertel Thorvaldsen's neoclassicist equestrian statue of Prince Józef Poniatowski, Warsaw.
Monument to Nicholas I, St. Petersburg.
Monument to Nicholas I, St. Petersburg.
Equestrian statue of Theodoros Kolokotronis in Nafplion, Greece
Equestrian statue of Theodoros Kolokotronis in Nafplion, Greece
Ancient Rome

Such statues frequently commemorated military leaders, and those statesmen who wished to symbolically emphasize the active leadership role undertaken since Roman times by the equestrian class, the equites (plural of eques) or knights.

There were numerous bronze equestrian portraits (particularly of the emperors) in ancient Rome, but they did not survive because it was practice to melt down bronze statues for reuse of the precious alloy as coin or other, smaller projects (such as new sculptures for Christian churches). The sole surviving Roman equestrian bronze, of Marcus Aurelius owes its preservation on the Campidoglio, Rome, to the popular mis-identification of Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher-emperor, with Constantine the Great, the Christian emperor.