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.
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