Relief Plaque (Primary Title)
Unknown (Artist)
This fragmentary bronze shows a horse-like satyr kneeling in a landscape (indicated by a tree) with a dramatically foreshortened right leg and left hand. Satyrs—human-animal hybrids—accompanied the god Dionysos in both his wine-fueled celebrations and his military campaigns. This satyr, wearing an animal and with his thyrsus (a staff surmounted with a pinecone) beside him, shields his eyes to look into the distance, a fitting gesture for a relief that probably once decorated a soldier’s cuirass.
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