Rider statue, Jbeil (Byblos, Lebanon), terracotta, c. 700 CE. Musée du Cinquantenaire (Brussels, Belgium). Made with CapturingReality.
The style of this work is similar to that of the production of Amrit, a religious center on the southern coast of Syria, where the art of the Phoenician terracotta was revitalized by Cypriot artisans. The blinkers as well as the horse’s fringe umbrella are exact copies of the corresponding elements of the equestrian equipment in bronze of the Aramaic and Phoenician art of the 9th-8th centuries. Since the beginning of the last century, the Mediterranean area of the ancient Near East has attracted the attention of Belgian researchers, who have constantly contributed substantially to the study of the cultural history of this region through archaeological excavations, or even historical and epigraphic research.
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