Start of the Race of the Barberi Horses, Rome

Start of the Race of the Barberi Horses, Rome

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The race of the riderless Barbieri horses in the Corso was a Roman Carnival tradition that began with the gathering of the horses in the Piazza del Popolo and ended with their capture at the finish. Excited by this spectacle, Carpeaux divested the scene of its contemporary detail and transformed it into a timeless image of men heroically struggling with the rearing animals. The hand of the sculptor is evident in the drawing, where energetic movement and anatomical verisimilitude enliven human and animal bodies.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Start of the Race of the Barberi Horses, RomeStart of the Race of the Barberi Horses, RomeStart of the Race of the Barberi Horses, RomeStart of the Race of the Barberi Horses, RomeStart of the Race of the Barberi Horses, Rome

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.