Horse Head from the Equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius

myminifactory

This plaster cast of a horse's head originates from the original Equestrian Statue of Marcus Aurelius, housed at the Capitoline Museums in Rome (Inv.MC3247). A replica stands proudly in the open air of Piazza del Campidoglio. The sculpture consists of two parts: the horse and the rider. The emperor's horse is a stunning example of dynamism captured in three dimensions. Caught in motion, the horse turns its head to the right as if following the direction of Aurelius' right hand with its mouth slightly open. At the time of Marcus Aurelius' death, there were many equestrian statues in ancient Rome. Late Imperial descriptions listed 22 such statues, called equi magni, which were on the same scale as this sculpture. The statue of Marcus Aurelius is the only one to have survived to the present day, largely due to its frequent transfers between leaders until 1538 when Pope Paul III ordered it to be moved to the Capitoline Hill. A year after its arrival, the Roman Senate commissioned Michelangelo to restore the statue. This great Florentine artist not only planned an appropriate site for the monument but made it a central element of the magnificent architectural complex known as Piazza del Campidoglio. If you create new work with this model and want to share it with us, please drop us a line at web@smk.dk or stw@myminifactory.com. This scan was produced in collaboration between The Statens Museum for Kunst and Scan the World for the SMK-Open project. Every model produced from this initiative is available under an open source license. Scanner - Artec Eva