Man the Commander
On Equestrian Statues and Masculinities through Time
By (author) Maud Webster
Paperback (Forthcoming)
(January 2027)
ISBN: 9781800509450
5.51 x 8.5 inches
Price: $21.95
The book discusses some seventy monuments selected to sample a range of times and places, and to exemplify issues such as changing styles, restoration- and reiteration practices, masculinity ideals, and other trends and ideas studding the great span of this particular kind of monument.
Do you feel that equestrian statues are boring?
Think again. Maud Webster reveals unsuspected angles of these outdated outdoorsmen in this exploration of a heritage that runs through two millennia, and is still being restored and renewed – as well as interrogated and culled.
The book discusses some seventy monuments selected to sample a range of times and places, and to exemplify issues such as changing styles, restoration- and reiteration practices, masculinity ideals, and other trends and ideas studding the great span of this particular kind of monument.
Following an introductory background, a brief history is presented that leads to an investigation of contemporary expressions. This panorama is then followed by a series of more discursive snapshots of particular equestrian statues that have recently been made or used in special ways just outside the European mainstream, to appropriate or to manipulate – using historical figures for current stances, or turning statuary homage into moveable acts.
Written with an eye for changing masculinity tropes, this book rewards renewed scrutiny of those monumental metal men stuck on their high horses while their surroundings change and move on.
1. INTRODUCTION
Background
A certain kind of memorial
Ways to tell a story
2. EQUESTRIAN PIECES OF THE PAST
A roundabout history
Modernity and Man the Commander
Managing history’s horsemen
3. UNSETTLING HORSEMEN OF THE PRESENT
Men in trouble
Spectral silhouettes and hollow men
Rocking boys
4. ELSEWHERE, NEARBY
Boys will be boys, feat. Alexander the Great
Splendid appropriations, or the no-name game
Toppled over and over
5. NOW AND AGAIN
NOTES
LIST OF CITED EQUESTRIAN STATUES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- By (author) Maud Webster
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