2,500 Years Of Horsemen Clichés
Table Of Contents
Two very specific images of the horsemen on rearing horses were so popular with the patrons that they became clichés.
The third series of the images is not likely to be a cliché invented by artists, but the subject was appearing naturally in s very similar way throughout millennia, so it is worth tracking its evolution.
Horsemen Receiving Victory Emblems For 2,100 Years
↑ Back To Table Of Contents ↑Here are several very similar images: a male horseman on a rearing horse is receiving an emblem of victory, often a laurel wreath but sometimes a ribboned necklace, from a winged, almost always female, creature. This very specific iconography was appearing in art objects throughout over 2,100 years in very different cultures: Ancient Greece, Sassanian Persia, Catholic Flandres, Duchy of Savoy, France and Bavaria, Protestant England and Orthodox Russia! Observe that on all modern era portraits the sovereigns are holding a baton, Marie Jeanne Baptiste of Savoy-Nemours, who holds a sword (and the cherub with a laurel wreath seems to have changed his mind and is flying away from her!).

cr. 420 BC, Attic

beginning of the 4th century BC, Attic

340–330 BC, Apulia

mid-4th century AD

7th century

1650, Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert, Flemish

1660-75, Giovanni Luigi Buffi, Duchy of Savoy

1674, Pierre Mignard

1673, Pierre Mignard

before 1723, Godfrey Kneller

early 18th century, Jacob van Schuppen

Unknown, circa 1710

Johann Gottfried Tannauer, 1724 or 1725

1758, Georges Desmarées, Bavaria, Germany

early 18th century, Guillielmus de Grof, Bavaria

1714, Guillielmus de Grof, Bavaria

1714, Guillielmus de Grof, Bavaria

early eighteenth century, French School
Horsemen With Batons, A Status Symbol Of The 16th-19th Centuries
↑ Back To Table Of Contents ↑Being portrayed on a rearing horse, preferably dressed à l’antique, wearing a sash and holding a baton, was a status symbol in the 17th-century gentlemen, pretty much as #followme photos for the 21st-century ladies (see below). The trend has appeared in the second half of the 16th century in prints, reached its highest point in the 17th century, then dispersed throughout Europe, descended into trivialization and disappeared by the middle of the 19th century. Unlike the victory symbols cliché, this image was not reserved for the royalty, the aristocracy could use it as well.
French king Louis XIV (1638 – 1715) and two field marshals, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722, England) and Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663- 1736, the Holy Roman Empire and Austria), deserve a particular mention since they were have been represented on the paintings that combine both clichés.
In addition, Prince Eugene of Savoy feature on a painting with two, maybe even three horsemen on rearing horses with batons.

1674, Pierre Mignard

1673, Pierre Mignard

before 1723, Godfrey Kneller

early 18th century, Jacob van Schuppen

cr. 1720, Johann Gottfried Auerbach
The image was first used for the antique heroes and rulers, but soon after it was adopted to portray the contemporary patrons.

cr. 1578, Hendrick Goltzius, Netherlands

1586, Hendrik Goltzius

1596, Antonio Tempesta

Raphael Sadeler I, 1580-1600

cr. 1596-1637, Antonio Tempesta, Italy and Netherlands

1592-1622, Jacques Granthomme, France

1553-1610, probably after 1594, ?

1632, Johann Walter

1634-5, Anthony van Dyck

1634, Diego Velázquez

1634-5, Diego Velázquez

1600-1658, Caspar Gras

1818, after the statue by Nicolas Jacques destroyed at the Revolution (1792)

17th century, Claude Déruet (attributed to)

?, Studio of Claude Déruet

1643-7, Gonzales Coques

before 1684, Gonzales Coques

1693, Matthias Steinl, Austria

before 1723, Godfrey Kneller

Louis de Silvestre, circa 1718

cr.1768, Joshua Reynolds

1808, Francisco Goya

1840, Franz Kruger
Horsemen Hunting With Dogs For 2,000 Years
↑ Back To Table Of Contents ↑Cliché of a hunter on a rearing horse with a hunting dog underneath the horse has equally been popular with many cultures. It might seem like a very obvious iconography – and indeed it is – however it also highlights the cultural continuity, where the form changes, but the subject persevers.

mid-6th century BC, Boeotian

Attic, cr. 500 BC

538 BC-331 BC, Achaemenid Persia

Early 4th century BC

cr. 390-380 BC, classical Greek, Xanthos in Lycia, close to present-day Fethiye in Mugla Province, Turkey

4th century BC, Haskovo district, Bulgaria

3rd century, Asia Minor

4th or 5th century, Nile House, Tzippori (or Sepphoris, or Zippori) National Park, Palestine (modern Israel)

cr. 1125, Hermitage of San Baudelio, Casillas de Berlanga, Soria, Spain

medieval, Chapter House, Westminster Abbey, London, U.K.

13th-15th century, Laon region, France

14th century, England

early 15th century, France

early 15th century, France

cr. 1470, Paolo Uccello, Florence, Italy
Cliché Created In 2011
↑ Back To Table Of Contents ↑
One example is #followmeto: a lady with her back to the viewer leads her cameraman by the hand (cameraman’s hand is visible) to some interesting destination. This trend was created by a Russian couple Murad Osmann @muradosmann and @natalyosmann back in 2011. Murad says he started taking the photos almost by accident after his then-girlfriend Natalia became annoyed of him taking pictures and grabbed his hand and pulled him forward – and he carried on taking pictures.
Many Instagram users have started to follow the trend. It is hard to estimate how many such photos were taken, probably between 100,000 and 1,000,000 on Instagram alone.




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