Comment on 17.1.-14.2.1797
The word is difficult to decipher, but it is probably riding.
This is undoubtedly the two antique equestrian statues of Balbus the Younger and Balbus the Elder. They were found at Herculaneum in 1746 and c. 1747 respectively. They were both placed in the courtyard of the royal summer residence at Portici. In 1813 they were moved to the Museo Borbonico, now the Museo Nazionale in Naples, see Francis Haskell & Nicholas Penny: Taste and the Antique: The Lure of Classical Sculpture, 1500-1900, New Haven & London 1981, p. 158.
During his later visit to Naples, September – October 1818 Thorvaldsen drew sketches of the two equestrian statues, C257r.
Last updated 12.02.2017