AFTER THE ANTIQUE, AN ITALIAN STATUETTE OF THE MARCUS AURELIUS EQUESTRIAN MONUMENT 19TH CENTURY Bronze with white marble base 26cm high Provenance: The Simon Neal Collection After the ancient bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius in the Piazza del Campidoglio, Rome. Along with the groups of Alexander and Bucephalus this was the most important statue to survive unburied from antiquity. The reason for its survival may have been because the subject was mistakenly believed to be Constantine the Great (AD 272-337), the first Christian Emperor, so was not destroyed as a pagan idol by the Christians.