Lafréry, Antoine

This large engraving formed part of Antoine Lafréry’s Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae (1575), a collection of prints that purported to be the most comprehensive compendium of all the monuments and antiquities of Rome. These colossal statues, possibly representing the mythical half-twin brothers Castor and Pollux, are Roman copies after Greek originals and were described by a seventeenth-century theorist as fundamental to the understanding of equine anatomy. Their fragmentary state is emphasized by the view from behind, which reveals significant cracks, losses and surface wear.