Image Details

Porcuna Bull
limestone, 450 B.C.
A bull from Porcuna, its leg tucked beneath a thigh in a state of repose, betrays the influence of Greek sculpture on Iberian artists in the fifth century B.C. The entire Porcuna assemblage—including lions, deer and battling warriors—is marked by a sense of dramatic conflict and precisely rendered detail previously unknown in Iberian art. The ancient sculptor most likely wanted to suggest in stone a rich mythological world.