The divine rider in the art of the Western Roman Empire

The numerous portrayals of gods and humans on horseback which occur in Graeco-Roman art may appear to the unaccustomed eye to have many variations but, according to Mackintosh, are in fact based on a few stock images, which could be manipulated to fit the occasion. In this thorough study, she approaches the questions of how and where the genre first arose in art, how ot developed as it was `adapted' by subsequebt artists and how, in particular, imperial Rome made its mark on and through the Divine Rider. The author bases her study on close examination of `horse and rider' statues, votives and reliefs from across Europe, taking into consideration the dating, material and mythological association.