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Giant Horse from Mausoleum

The largest surviving sculpture from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus is the huge marble chariot horse, once one of a group of four who formed the apex of the great building. His powerfully modelled and intimidatingly large head and forepart is displayed in the Mausoleum room of the British Museum, whilst the body and rump (either of this horse or one of the other three) is kept in a basement gallery with other elements of the Mausoleum (sadly no longer accessible to the public).

 

The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus was one of the most famous buildings of the classical world, a grandiose royal tomb for the rulers of Caria. It was so famed for it's rich sculptural decoration and majestic pyramid-capped form that it became one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World. Halicarnassus, capital of ancient Caria is present day Bodrum, a well known coastal resort in south west Turkey.

 

The tomb was built for King Mausolos after his death in 343BC by his sister-queen Artemisia who wished to use it to immortalise the Carian dynasty. Artemisia herself died only two years later and was buried alongside her king in the heart of the monument, which became known as the 'Mausoleum' after it's prime occupant, thus becoming the origin of the modern word 'mausoleum' .

 

The architect Pytheos designed a huge roughly square structure atop a great terraced plinth, surmounted by a colonnade on all four sides (36 columns in all according to Pliny who left the best description of the building) surmounted by a pyramid roof of marble steps crowned by an enormous four horse chariot group in, all in gleaming white marble. There was a rich sculptural program, each of the four sides being entrusted to the supervision of a seperate sculptor, each renowned in his day (Scopas, Leochares, Timotheus & Bryaxis, wilst Pythis created the chariot group at the summit).

 

The magnificent structure survived the various invasions and traumas of history suffered by the city of Halicarnassus for many centuries but appears to have been partially demolished by earthquakes in the medieval period. A substantial part of the lower half of the building survived until the Knights of St John arrived during the 2nd Crusades, who plundered the materials to build the castle that now dominates the harbour of Bodrum. Many of the materials and sculptures were ground or burned for lime mortar, a tragic end to one of the greatest achievements of antiquity. During the plundering of the building the tomb chamber of Mausolos & Artemisia was discovered and looted. Little was allowed to remain and the site was consigned to oblivion.

 

It was not until the early 19th century that Sir Charles Newton aimed to rediscover the remains of the lost monument; sections of carved frieze and certain lion sculptures had remained visible incorporated into the medieval castle but the site itself was long forgotten. Newton had to buy plots of land at great personal expense in order to conduct test excavations to find the missing wonder, and eventually located large deposits of broken sculpture and the foundations of an enormous square structure. The lost Mausoleum was found.

 

The sculptures and best surviving architectural elements were sent back to London and reside in various parts of the British Museum, the best concentrated in the 'Mausoleum Room'. Their scale and quality is impressive and remind us what a grevious loss we have suffered when contemplating these last few fragments.

 

The sculptures include massive figures identified as Mausolos & Artemisia themselves, though it seems these are only the best preserved of a whole series of statues as many fragments of similarly huge figures have been found. Several sections of frieze and a sequence of lion statues ( originally nearly fifty, the three best preserved on display in London, another is in Istanbul). Conjecture surrounds the exact placing of all these sculptures on the monument, except for the largest of all, an enormous horse, originally one of four from the chariot group at the summit of the monument.

 

For more see below

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_Halicarnassus

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Uploaded on July 18, 2010
Taken on September 18, 2005