Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei (Budapest, 2007)
JÁNOS GYÖRGY SZILÁGYI: A Boar Hunt
reached the Greeks through Anatolia. 15 As early as the fifth century BC, especially through the influence of the Parthenon frieze, a particular galloping pose —the so-called "short gallop", with the hind legs bent inward at the knee —became popular, in contrast to the "flying gallop", usual in the art of the Near East, in which the hind legs of the horse are extended. 14 The "flying gallop" was generally prevalent in the Greek art of Asia Minor and the northern part of the Aegean world, as well as Macedonia and Thrace, but hardly without exception, so that the "short gallop" pose on the Budapest vase merely serves to underscore the Greek origin of the piece, which is in any case certain, but it does not provide an absolutely sure starting-point for localisation. One can go further by examining the diffusion of the practice of the boar-hunt, the vase's iconographie subject, in Greek and Roman culture. 15 From Homer onwards, the boar, along with the lion was the most fearsome wild animal. From the late Archaic period, it was more usually hunted on foot with nets than on horseback: a technique hardly uncommon even before. The history of the motif in art took a decisive turn in the time of the eastern campaigns of Alexander. The theme of the mounted boar-hunt spread suddenly, probably following the example of Mcsopotamian royal lion-hunting scenes. It appears on Greek votive and funerary reliefs, Pontic terracottas, and most prolifically on the stone reliefs in various sizes found in the territory and vicinity of modern Bulgaria, that is to say, the country of the ancient Thracians. Several thousand examples of these images, conventionally known as the "Thracian rider-god", most of them made in the second and third century AD but with some dating back as far as the Hellenistic period, appear on votive and funerary stelai from this region. 16 Without a doubt, the Budapest vase represents one (if not the only) iconographie prototype for these stelai. It is, however, noteworthy that the hunter on the vase w r ears long hunting boots, which are not at all common on the "Thracian rider" reliefs, but which were regarded in earlier Greek art as a typically Thracian motif. Although these boots are not restricted in Greek art 7 GRAECO-PERSIAN FUNERARY STELE. ISTANBUL. ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM
