Equestrian Portrait

An Equestrian Portrait shows the subject on horseback. Sculpted versions were already made during Antiquity. The most famous surviving example is the Roman statue of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius on the Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome.

In later centuries this portrait type acquired chivalric overtones. Such portraits have always been associated with sitters of high status, with the implication that a noble warrior or ruler was being depicted. Later, people further down the social scale aspired to these associations.