Bronze Applique with Horse

This bronze applique is shaped like a horse, rendered in a compact yet slender form, with lively and realistic details. Several naturalistic features stand out: the mane is incised with wavy lines or interlaced semicircles; the shoulders and thighs show the musculature through subtle protrusions; the long tail curves into an S-shape; the muzzle is elongated and slender, with an incised mouth and pointed ears. The short, slim legs rest on a rectangular perforated base, decorated with triangles with rounded tips. Two holes on the back indicate that the horse was attached to a larger object, probably the rim of a bronze vessel, perhaps a lebes.

This small but exceptional bronze figurine represents one of the earliest known examples of its kind found in Magna Graecia and, in particular, in Calabria. Its stylistic language, still strongly rooted in the tradition of Greek Geometric art, reveals early and intense cultural contacts between the sanctuary of Capo Colonna and the major sacred centers of the Greek mainland, where closely related objects were produced and circulated.