Greek geometric horse

Around 900 BC a change in style took place in ancient Greek art. Both in decorations and in the art of sculpting geometric patterns emerged, which were very much unlike the pre-Hellenic style, which was customary at the time. Painters began to decorate their pottery with stylized, sketched silhouettes, a style which soon was adopted by sculptures. Pre-eminently, a horse was suitable for this innovative, geometric simplification. Every bronze foundry on the Creek continent developed their own variations, but the “pig’s snout”, the pointed ears and the triangular notches in the base of the sculpture remained characteristic. Sometimes the horses served as an ornament on vases, but usually they were sculptures on their own merit, which were often used as memorial statuettes.