closest scrutiny of the horses' feet in these marbles with a practised—might I add a professional—eye, leads to the unhesitating conclusion that they are exact copies of nature in every respect, but nature never adorned or protected by an iron or bronze furniture. So true do they appear to real life, that we can almost fancy the animals in their spirited movements have chipped their hoofs at the sides (or quarters); and they are of a shape and perfectness which one seldom sees in hoofs that have been shod for any length of time.
These unrivalled relics of antiquity offer additional proofs that metal shoes were not in use. The ancient Greeks were very careful in representing the different costumes worn by the riders of these horses, even to the fashion of their foot covers. Not only this, but they had their marble statues adorned with metals in many instances, which again were not unfrequently gilt. ‘For the fragments show that the weapons, the reins of the horses, and other accessories, were in metal, probably gilt.’[1] The horses appeared to have had bits in their mouths, and the holes yet remain at the commissures of the lips wherein they have been fixed; but no evidence is to be found that any metal was attached to the hoofs. In a bas-relief of Castor and Pollux in the Townley gallery of the British Museum, instead of metal bridles for the two horses, red paint appears to have been used. No paint, however, is to be discovered on the feet of any horses to indicate that shoes were worn.
In the Temple collection (case 56) in the British
- ↑ Description of the Collections of Ancient Marbles in the British Museum. Part IV. page 26. London, 1830.
