Item number: C144

Year: AD 1920s

Material: Brass

Size: 192 x 125 x 7 mm

Provenance: Marc Aurel Antiquitäten & Wohnen 2025

This brass engraving depicts a finish line scene during a horse race.

The engraving employs a sketch-like style characterised by abbreviated lines, complemented by expansive monochromatic grey washes for coloration. Centrally positioned are two racehorses crossing the finish line in a fore-and-aft formation. The horses are equipped with English saddles, which gained popularity in Europe and America from the 18th century AD onwards; these are distinguished by a flatter profile and the absence of a pommel horn, thereby facilitating superior horsemanship. The saddles are secured by girths (girth / tack) encircling the neck and the ribs. The riders wear jacket-like outerwear, breeches, and riding boots, topped with equestrian helmets. The jockeys are depicted seated in the saddle in a relatively stable three-point seat. However, following the invention of a new posture by American jockeys in AD 1897, the three-point seat has largely been superseded by the two-point seat—standing in the stirrups—within modern flat racing events.

The foremost horse and rider are rendered in raised relief. The jockey holds the reins taut with both hands, while the horse assumes a “flying galloping” (flying galloping) posture, in which the fore and hind limbs are fully extended anteriorly and posteriorly, respectively, with the hind hooves upturned and all four hooves clear of the ground. This posture, which does not exist in the actual locomotive mechanics of a galloping horse, likely originated from the artistic idealisation of the late 18th century AD British painter George Stubbs (George Stubbs). Due to its effective accentuation of speed, this pose became widely prevalent in European painting until it was debunked in AD 1878, when Eadweard James Muybridge (Eadweard James Muybridge) published the photographic collection The Horse in Motion. The horse in the background also maintains a flying gallop, while its rider holds the reins in one hand and raises the right hand forward, flourishing a whip in a strenuous pursuit. To the left of the track stands a long pole with banners, identified as the winning post (winning post). The rectangular structure on the right is situated at a considerable distance from the winning post; if it is not an artistic stylisation of a judge’s tower, it likely served as a notice board, a chronometer, or a designated station for photography.

If one grants credibility to the artist’s restoration of detail, the lead horse crossing the line possesses a white facial marking extending from the forehead to the tip of the nose, commonly referred to as a “blaze” or “flare”. This feature might potentially serve to date the specific scene depicted in the work, though this remains subject to further investigation.

The presentation of the work as an engraving with sketch-like brushwork may be associated with the then-fashionable movement of New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) in Germany. New Objectivity was the most significant artistic movement in Germany during the Weimar Republic (Weimar Republic) of the AD 1920s. It emerged as a reaction against the extreme emotionalism and abstraction of pre-war Expressionism (Expressionism). Artists of this school advocated for a “return to order” and “dispassionate observation”, eschewing subjective brushwork and chromatic distortion to the greatest extent possible.

物件編號: C144

年代: 公元 1920 年代

材質: 黃銅

尺寸: 192 x 125 x 7 mm

來源: 馬可·奧勒留 古董和家居裝飾 2025

這是一幅黃銅版畫，繪製賽馬時的衝線場景。

版畫為素描風格的簡略線條，配以淡色灰階大色塊來填色。中央為兩匹賽馬一前一後的衝線，馬匹配戴著十八世紀後開始在歐美流行的英式馬鞍，特色為較扁平且無鞍角，便於發揮騎術。馬鞍以圍於頸上以及肋上的前後肚帶(girth / tack)固定。騎手身著類似夾克的外套與馬褲、馬靴，頭戴馬術頭盔。騎手姿態為坐於鞍上，較為穩定的三點式騎乘，但自公元1897年美國騎師發明新姿態後，近代平地競速賽馬項目中，三點式騎乘多被站於蹬上的二點式騎乘所取代。

前方馬匹與騎手為浮凸的浮雕，騎手雙手紹勒韁繩，馬匹呈「飛奔」(flying galloping)的姿勢，即前後肢分別向前後完全伸展，後蹄蹄面朝上，四蹄均不接地。這個現實馬匹奔跑動作中不存在的姿態可能是出自十八世紀末英國畫家喬治·史德布思(George Stubbs)的藝術化處理，由於凸顯了馬匹的速度感而使該姿態廣泛流行於歐洲畫作，直到公元1878年，埃德沃德·邁布里奇(Eadweard James Muybridge)出版攝影集《飛馳中的馬》才加以證偽。側後方馬匹也呈飛奔姿態，騎手則一手執韁，右手前舉，高揚馬鞭，奮力追趕。左側賽道邊豎立著長桿與旗幡，應為終點桿(winning post)，右方方形建物因離終點桿較遠，若非是裁判塔的藝術化處理，便是用作告示、計時，或是提供攝影的機位。

若是信任畫家對於細節的還原，則衝線的頭馬面部白斑自額間一直延伸到鼻尖，可稱為「流星斑」或「火焰斑」，或許可以此為該畫場景定年，具體則待考。

作品以素描筆觸的版畫呈現，則可能與時興於德國的新客觀主義(新即物主義，Neue Sachlichkeit)有關。新客觀主義是公元1920年代威瑪共和時期(Weimar Republic)德國最重要的藝術運動，它興起於對戰前表現主義(Expressionism)極度情緒化與抽象化的反思。這派藝術家主張「回歸秩序」與「冷靜觀察」，盡可能拋棄主觀的筆觸與色彩扭曲。