Statue of a rider. The "Rampin Rider"
Inventory number
Ακρ. 590
Artist
The "Rampin Master"
Category
Sculpture
Period
Archaic Period
Date
Around 550 BC
Dimensions
Height: 1.08 m
Length: 0.77 m
Width: 0.38 m
Material
Marble from Paros
Location
Archaic Acropolis Gallery
The statue was found in pieces in 1886 west of the Erechtheion. Some parts are missing while the head is a plaster copy of the original which is in the Louvre Museum in Paris. The statue was conventionally named "Rampin Rider" from the name of the head's first owner, the French collector Georges Rampin.
It is the oldest, most famous equestrian statue dedicated on the Acropolis. A naked youth is riding, seated forward almost on his horse's neck. The metal bridle and reins the man was holding were attached in the drilled holes in the horse's mane. The artist's attempted to render the rider's physique and anatomical details of his abdomen. On his head he wears a wreath made of wild celery or oak leaves which signifies that he was the victor at an equestrian event, perhaps at the Nemean Games, in the Peloponnese or the Olympic Games. The features of his face are typical of the period: big, almond-shape eyes, thin eyebrows and the constricted smile known as the "archaic smile". Traces of color are still preserved on the rider's face and hair, as well as on the horse's mane.
The expensive rider statues were dedications of the two upper socio-economic classes, the pentacosiomedimnoi and the triacosiomedimnoi or riders. These two classes had undertaken the expensive obligation to maintain war horses. In equestrian events, therefore, only affluent nobles could take part, either as athletes or horse owners. To this upper class clearly belongs our rider, who, after winning in the games, dedicated his commemorative statue up on the Acropolis.
Dickins, G., Catalogue of the Acropolis Museum, Archaic Sculpture, I, Cambridge, 1912, σελ. 124, αρ.κατ. 590
Michon, E., Marbles antiques du Louvre, Braun, 1918, σελ. 42, εικ. 28
Lücken, G. von, «Archaische griechische Vasenmalerei und Plastik», Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. Athenische Abteilung 44, 1919, σελ. 79, εικ. 4.17, 5.26
Hyde, W. W., Olympic Victor Monuments and Greek Athletic Art, Washington, 1921, σελ. 126, 176
Bulle, H., Der schöne Mensch im Altertum, München, 1922, εικ. 225
Agard, W. R., «The Date of the Metopes of the Athenian Treasury at Delphi», American Journal of Archaeology 27, 1923, σελ. 177
Buschor, E., «Mitteilungen aus dem Kerameikos III. Ein Kopf von Dipylon», Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. Athenische Abteilung 52, 1927, σελ. 212
Beazley, J. D., B. Ashmole, Greek Sculpture and Painting to the End of the Hellenistic Period, London, 1932, σελ. 20, εικ. 37
Casson, S., The Technique of Early Greek Sculpture, Oxford, 1933, σελ. 177, εικ. 61
Payne, H., «Archaeology in Greece», Journal of Hellenic Studies 53, 1933, σελ. 272
Payne, H., G. Mackworth-Young, Archaic Marble Sculpture from the Acropolis, London, 1936, σελ. 6, εικ. 11A-C, αρ.κατ. 51
Rumpf, A., «Endoios, ein Versuch», Critica d'Arte 14, 1938, σελ. 41-43
Langlotz, E., W. Schuchhardt, H. Schrader, Die archaischen Marmorbildwerke der Akropolis, Frankfurt am Main, 1939, σελ. 212-214, εικ. 134-137, αρ.κατ. 312
Schefold, K., Die Griechische Plastik Ι: Die grossen Bildhauer des archaischen Athen, Basel, 1949, σελ. 27-28, 72, εικ. πίν. 33
Lippold, G., Die griechische Plastik, Handbuch der Archäologie III 1, München, 1950, σελ. 79-80
Lullies, R., Hirmer, M., Griechische Plastik von den Anfängen bis zum Ausgang des Hellenismus, München, 1956, σελ. 41, εικ. 28-29
Charbonneaux, J., R. Martin, F. Villard, Grèce Archaique : 620-480 avant J.-C., Barcelone, 1968, σελ. 122, 124-125, εικ. 103
Deyhle, W., «Meisterfragen der archaischen Plastik Attikas», Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts. Athenische Abteilung 84, 1969, σελ. 6-7
Μπρούσκαρη, Μ., Μουσείον Ακρόπολεως. Περιγραφικός κατάλογος, Αθήνα, 1974, σελ. 55, εικ. 99
Rolley, Cl., La sculpture grecque. Des origines au milieu du Ve siècle, La sculpture grecque 1, Paris, 1994, σελ. 172, εικ. 151
Τριάντη, Ι., Το Μουσείο Ακροπόλεως, Ο Κύκλος των Μουσείων, Αθήνα, 1998, σελ. 183
Hamiaux, M., Les Sculptures grecques, Paris, 2001, σελ. 88-89, αρ.κατ. 80
Scholl, A., «Die Akropolisvotive aus dem 8. bis frühen 6. Jahrhundert v.Chr. und die Staatswerdung Athens», Jahrbuch des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts 121, 2006, σελ. 132, 165, εικ. 53, αρ.κατ. 164
Patay-Horváth, A., Metallanstückungen an griechischen Marmorskulpturen in archaischer und klassischer Zeit, Tübinger Archäologische Forschungen 4, 2008, σελ. 87, αρ.κατ. 62
Παντερμαλής, Δ., Ελευθεράτου, Σ., Βλασσοπούλου, Χ., Μουσείο Ακρόπολης. Οδηγός, Αθήνα, 2016, σελ. 150-151, εικ. 162
