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拍品专文
This large and impressive applique depicts a reclining horse, its fore and hind legs folded underneath. The absence of any indication that the horse has been hunted or trussed, seem to suggest that this is a naturalistic depiction of a sleeping wild horse. However, the treatment of the horse's mane is particularly influenced by Achaemenid art, and appears to be trimmed in their fashion leaving only four long curls over the lower part of the neck; see other depictions of horses in Achaemenid silver rhyta, such as the example from the Shumei Family collection now in the Miho Museum, J. P. O'Neill (ed.), Ancient Art from the Shumei Family Collection, New York, 1996, p. 43, no. 16.
The Scythians were a nomadic people who tamed wild horses and also hunted them for food. Strabo's Geography, VII.4.8, tells us how the Scythians considered the milk of a mare as a delicacy and Pliny describes how the Scythian horsemen made loud boasts of the fame of their cavalry (The Natural History, VIII.64). The horse was clearly of great importance, as reflected not only in these ancient sources, but also in the many richly decorated horse trappings found dating from this period.
Although the significance of this restful representation is unknown, the presence of sheet gold loops, instead of rivet holes, on the back of the piece indicate that it was attached to a backing with thin chords that would have likely been fixed to a flexible, organic material such as leather, rather than a rigid object in metal or wood. It has been suggested that the applique was attached vertically to a gorytos, a combination of bow case and quiver in one, which was worn on the archer's left hip with the opening tilted rearwards. Many gorytoi were highly decorated and often gilded. See, for example, the modern reconstruction of a Scythian warrior based on finds from a tomb of the 5th-4th century (no. 10, pp. 112-113 in E.D. Reeder, ed., Scythian Gold, 1999), complete with shirt and leg coverings formed of iron plates over leather, a leather gorytos and a scabbarded short sword. For other gorytos appliques in the form of boards, dogs, leopards and stags, see op. cit. nos. 46-48 . For a similar horse applique of a smaller size, see no. 175 in Or des scythes : trésors des musées soviétiques, Paris, 1975.
The Scythians were a nomadic people who tamed wild horses and also hunted them for food. Strabo's Geography, VII.4.8, tells us how the Scythians considered the milk of a mare as a delicacy and Pliny describes how the Scythian horsemen made loud boasts of the fame of their cavalry (The Natural History, VIII.64). The horse was clearly of great importance, as reflected not only in these ancient sources, but also in the many richly decorated horse trappings found dating from this period.
Although the significance of this restful representation is unknown, the presence of sheet gold loops, instead of rivet holes, on the back of the piece indicate that it was attached to a backing with thin chords that would have likely been fixed to a flexible, organic material such as leather, rather than a rigid object in metal or wood. It has been suggested that the applique was attached vertically to a gorytos, a combination of bow case and quiver in one, which was worn on the archer's left hip with the opening tilted rearwards. Many gorytoi were highly decorated and often gilded. See, for example, the modern reconstruction of a Scythian warrior based on finds from a tomb of the 5th-4th century (no. 10, pp. 112-113 in E.D. Reeder, ed., Scythian Gold, 1999), complete with shirt and leg coverings formed of iron plates over leather, a leather gorytos and a scabbarded short sword. For other gorytos appliques in the form of boards, dogs, leopards and stags, see op. cit. nos. 46-48 . For a similar horse applique of a smaller size, see no. 175 in Or des scythes : trésors des musées soviétiques, Paris, 1975.