# Riderless Racers at Rome [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [GÉRICAULT, Théodore]() - Date: 1801-1850 - Technique: Oil on paper, mounted on canvas, 45 x 60 cm ## Commentary From the mid-15th century until 1882, spring carnival in Rome closed with a horse race. Fifteen to 20 riderless horses, originally imported from the Barbary Coast of North Africa, ran the length of the Via del Corso, a long, straight city street, in about 2,5 minutes. Throughout his career, Géricault lovingly depicted the horse as a metaphor for unfettered emotion and power. The artist initially planned to paint a canvas of this subject more than 9 m in width; he completed 20 small oil studies before abandoning the project. In other variations on this theme, Géricault set the race in ancient, rather than contemporary, Rome. ## Related artworks - [A Carabinier with his Horse]() - [A Charge of Cuirassiers]() - [A Madwoman and Compulsive Gambler]() - [A Turk \(Mustapha\)]() - [An Officer of the Chasseurs Commanding a Charge]() - [English Horse in Stable]() - [Grey Horse Called L'Aly]() - [Heroic Landscape with Fishermen]() - [Horse Market: Five Horses at the Stake]() - [Man with Delusions of Military Command]() - [Nymph and Satyr \(Jupiter and Antiope\)]() - [Portrait of a Kleptomaniac]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()