Object Title
Statuette of a Horse
Measurements
9.2 x 8.2 x 2.6 cm (3.6 x 3.2 x 1 in.)
Creation Date
about 750/730 B.C.
Credit Line
Katherine K. Adler, Costa A. Pandaleon Greek Memorial, and Mr. and Mrs. Walter Alexander Classical Endowment, James H. Allan and Christopher D. Allan funds
Culture
Country of Origin
Object Type
Materials / Techniques
Object URL
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/237363?search_no=4&index=0
Museum's Definition of Antiquity
Created before 476 CE
Provenance Information
Collection of Mrs. John Hay Whitney (died 1998), New York, from Mathias Komor, 1961 [John Hay Whitney and Betsey Cushing Whitney Family Papers (MS1938), Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library, ledger entry]; sold at Sotheby’s, New York, June 5, 1999, to an unnamed owner in the United States; sold at Sotheby’s, New York, December 9, 2003, to an unnamed owner in New Jersey; Rupert Wace Ancient Art, Ltd., London; purchased by the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, in 2016.
Exhibition Information
The European Fine Art Fair, Maastricht Exhibition & Congress Centre Maastricht, The Netherlands, March 11-20, 2016. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, October 10, 2016-present.
Publication Information
Sotheby’s New York, Antiquities, June 5, 1999, lot 107. Sotheby’s New York, Antiquities, December 9, 2003, lot 33.
Section of the AAMD Guidelines relied upon for the exception to 1970
Informed judgement that works were outside of the country of modern discovery before 1970
Explain why the object fits the exception set forth above
The description and history of the object as documented in the The John Hay Whitney and Betsey Cushing Whitney Family Papers at Yale University Mrs. John Hay Whitney (“Whitney Family Papers”) supports provenance to 1961. A ledger entry in the Whitney Family Papers noted that Mrs. Whitney purchased a “small bronze statuette of a horse” from known antiquities dealer Mathias Komor, located in New York. Although no photograph accompanied the ledger entry, a more detailed description of a “Greek Geometric Bronze Horse,” which matches this object, was listed in an 1982 inventory of the Estate of John Hay Whitney, also in the Whitney Family Papers, and the statuette appeared in an undated photograph of the Whitney’s Beekman Place, New York, residence that was taken during Mrs. Whitney’s lifetime (reprinted in a Sotheby’s catalog from May 5, 2004). The object has been published twice, in 1999 and 2003, in catalogues from a major New York auction house and, in 2016, was featured at the European Fine Art Fair in the Maastricht Exhibition & Congress Centre. It is a major addition to the museum as an extremely fine example of early Greek art.