The Horse in Ancient Greek Art

With more than 80 works from private and public collections, this is the first exhibition that focuses on the central role of the horse in ancient Greek art, mythology, and culture from the Geometric through Classical periods (ca. 8th – 4th centuries BCE).  Features Greek vases, sculpture, and coins from the 8th through the 4th centuries BC drawn from private collections, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Tampa Museum of Art, and other museum collections. 

From myth and legend to warfare, sport, and transportation, the horse played an integral role in ancient Greek culture. Wealthy Greeks belonged to the social class of knights and hunted to develop skills for fighting in the cavalry. Horses were among the earliest subjects explored by Greek artists and remained the most commonly depicted animal in the Archaic and Classical Periods. Artists and writers celebrated horses as symbols of wealth, power, and prestige but also as cherished companions of humans, heroes, and gods.

The Horse in Ancient Greek Art presents imagery of mythical horses like the winged Pegasus, who becomes a constellation, as well as horse-hybrids like centaurs and satyrs, creatures that are part human and part horse. Many artists depict chariots, sometimes rushing into battle and sometimes in thrilling races, while others focus on horse races, carefully indicating the goads, bridles, reins, and bits. These images as well as scenes of grooming and feeding well-bred steeds reveal striking parallels between ancient and modern horse care and horsemanship.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website 

Whether you go or not, The Horse in Ancient Greek Art is richly illustrated with more than 80 objects showing scenes of ancient equestrian life. Essays by notable scholars of ancient Greek art and archaeology explore the indelible presence and significance horses occupied in numerous facets of ancient Greek culture, including myth, war, sport, and competition, shedding new light on horsemanship from the 8th through the 4th century BCE. Horses were revered in ancient Greece as symbols of wealth, power, and status. On stunning black- and red-figure vases, in sculpture, and in other media, Greek artists depicted the daily care of horses, chariot and horseback races, scenes of combat, and mythological horse-hybrids such as satyrs and the winged Pegasus.

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