Horsemen Genealogy From The 7th Century BC To The 21st Century AD
While it is impossible to name all historical and mythological personalities whose signature image became one on a rearing horse, let us try and name the most significant ones. This “genealogy” is somewhat arbitrary, yet, hopefully, it will highlight the most important elements.

645-35 BC, Neo-Assyrian (Iraq)

circa 320 BC, Ionian or Rhodian workmanchip, Hellenistic

2nd half of 2nd century BC, Autun, France (Roman culture)

3rd century, late Roman

5th century or later, Sasanian

5th century, Byzantine

5th-7th century, Byzantine
Later, we see the emergence of arguably the most well-known horseman on the rearing horse, Saint George. He was spearing emperor Diocletian in early Eastern tradition, but otherwise, he is spearing the dragon as in the legend of Saint George and the Dragon. The dragon was transferred to Saint George from Saint Theodore of Amasea in the 11th century, and the princess that is saved by Saint George has appeared at around that time. One could suspect the link between Saint George and Bellerophon, and indeed the link exists, as per this The J. Paul Getty’s museum research and this St. Mary Magdalen School of Theology research.

9th–12th century, Byzantine

bas-relief from a 9th-10th-century Georgian monastery

1179, Cathedral of San Pantaleone, Ravello

cr. 1505, Raphael, Italy

13th century, Amaseia, modern Turkey

1500-50, Russia

1649, Francisco Camilo, Spain

cr. 1778, painted by Yuhanna al-Armani, Ottoman Egypt
In the 16th century, we see the beginning of another tradition, where the horseman on a rearing horse is no longer killing any enemy, but is shown at the moment of triumph. This tradition has started with Marcus Curtius, a Roman hero whose depiction was on almost any possible object back in the 16th century. It was followed by many European sovereigns, in paintings and in sculpture; then it expanded on other continents.

1548, Titian, Augsburg, Germany

1586-1617, circle of Hendrick Goltzius

17th century, Unknown

1668, Charles Le Brun

1802, Jacques-Louis David

Dresden, Saxony (Germany)

Model by Johann J. Kaendler,
Meissen 1745

Saint-Petersburg, Russia

1852, Clark Mills, Washington D.C., U.S.A.

completed in 1860, dedicated in 1863, Louis Joseph Daumas, Buenos Aires, Argentina

2010, Fakir Chandra Parida, Shimla, India
There are two particularly interesting sub-types of triumphant representation, the one that became the status symbol in the 17th-18th centuries, and the one where the rider receives the emblems of victory; more on both sub-types just below!
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