Leonardo's horse
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/74/Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_RCIN_912321%2C_Studies_of_a_horse_c.1490.jpg/220px-Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_RCIN_912321%2C_Studies_of_a_horse_c.1490.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/58/Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_Study_for_an_equestrian_monument_%28recto%29_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg/220px-Leonardo_da_Vinci_-_Study_for_an_equestrian_monument_%28recto%29_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
Leonardo's Horse (also known as the Sforza Horse or the Gran Cavallo ("Great Horse") ) is a project for a
About five centuries later, Leonardo's surviving designs were used as the basis for sculptures intended to bring the project to fruition.
History
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/98/Leonardo_da_vinci%2C_Double_manuscript_page_on_the_Sforza_monument.jpg/220px-Leonardo_da_vinci%2C_Double_manuscript_page_on_the_Sforza_monument.jpg)
An
In preparation for the work, Leonardo studied horses, and wrote a treatise on horse anatomy. Another treatise, titled Of Weight, included detailed plans for casting the statue,[7] which would have been done in separate hollow pieces and featured iron braces for internal support.[8][b] By November 1493, a full-size clay model of the horse (without its rider) was exhibited at one of the Sforzas' weddings, gaining Leonardo significant fame.[3] In a 20 December 1493 note by Leonardo, he stated his readiness to begin the casting process, but in November 1494, Ludovico gave the bronze to his father-in-law Ercole d'Este to be used to forge cannons to defend the city from invasion by Charles VIII.[7][3][10] Leonardo's rival Michelangelo encountered him at some point in Florence, and insulted him by implying that he was unable to perform the casting.[11][c]
The clay model was used as an archery target by French soldiers when they invaded Milan in 1499 at the beginning of the
Influence and modern versions
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/Monumento_a_Felipe_IV_%28Madrid%29_10.jpg/220px-Monumento_a_Felipe_IV_%28Madrid%29_10.jpg)
In 1640, Pietro Tacca built the first equestrian monument featuring a (freestanding) rearing horse and King Philip IV of Spain, for which Galileo Galilei helped compute gravitational solutions—similar to Leonardo's—to deal with its offset weight. Étienne Maurice Falconet's Bronze Horseman accomplishes a similar feat, although neither reach the physical scale of Leonardo's design.[8]
About five centuries after the original project failed, Leonardo's surviving design materials were used as the basis for sculptures intended to bring the project to fruition.
The Horse
Dent's projected cost for the horse came to nearly US$2.5 million. He had a domed studio/workshop constructed in Allentown within which he personally began to conceptualize the re-creation and initial modelling of the sculpture. In 1988, he enlisted sculptor/painter Garth Herrick to begin part-time work on the horse. When Charles Dent died of
By 1997, Tallix Art Foundry, in Beacon, New York, the company contracted by LDVHI to cast the horse, had suggested bringing Nina Akamu, an experienced animal sculptor, on board to improve upon the Dent-Herrick horse. After several months. Nina Akamu determined that the original model could not be salvaged and concluded that a completely new sculpture needed to be executed.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/Ippodromo_del_Galoppo_-_panoramio.jpg/220px-Ippodromo_del_Galoppo_-_panoramio.jpg)
Leonardo had made numerous small sketches of horses to help illustrate his notes about the complex procedures for molding and casting the sculpture. But his notes were far from systematic, and none of the sketches points to the final position of the horse, with no single definitive drawing of the statue. Akamu researched multiple information sources to gain insight into the original sculptor's intentions. She studied both Leonardo's notes and drawings of the horse and those of other projects he was working on. She reviewed his thoughts on anatomy, painting, sculpture, and natural phenomena. Her research expanded to include the teachers who had influenced Leonardo. Akamu also studied Iberian horse breeds, such as the
Two full-size casts were made of Akamu's 24-foot (7.3 m) design. The primary cast – The Horse – was placed at the Hippodrome of San Siro in Milan, and unveiled on September 10, 1999.[17]
The Da Vinci Science Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania, holds the rights to Leonardo da Vinci's Horse[18] as a result of its 2003 merger with LDVHI.
Additional renderings of The Horse of different sizes are displayed in the United States and Italy.[19]
The American Horse
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/56/MeijerGardensAmericanHorse.jpg/220px-MeijerGardensAmericanHorse.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e0/Cavallo_di_Leonardo_Vinci.jpg/220px-Cavallo_di_Leonardo_Vinci.jpg)
The second full-size cast of Nina Akamu's design became known as The American Horse, which was commissioned by philanthropist
The Vinci Horse
A 2.5-metre (8 ft) bronze version of the sculpture stands in Leonardo's birthplace, Vinci, Italy, where it was dedicated on November 17, 2001.
The Baum School Horse
A 12-foot (3.6 m) replica was placed in Charles C. Dent's hometown of Allentown, Pa. in the Charles C. Dent Memorial Garden at The Baum School of Art, where it was dedicated on October 4, 2002.[22]
The Da Vinci Science Center Horse
The Da Vinci Science Center – the organization that is shaped by the merger of LDVHI and what was then known as the Discovery Center of Science and Technology – displays a three-foot (1 m) replica of The Horse in its main lobby, which was dedicated when the science center opened its current location on October 30, 2005.[23] The Da Vinci Science Center's sculpture also has appeared on loan at Discovery Times Square in New York City, New York, and at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Wyoming Horse
An eight-foot-tall (2.5 m) replica of The Horse was placed in Sheridan, Wyoming, where it was dedicated on August 20, 2014.[24] The Wyoming Horse was commissioned by the Wyoming Community Foundation on behalf of the Sheridan Public Arts Committee as part of the city's commitment to the arts. Sponsors of the Wyoming Horse were Sheridan Media, Frackelton's Restaurant; The Phoenix Limited Partnership; the Sheridan Johnson Community Foundation; the Wyoming Community Foundation; and Kim and Mary Kay Love.
Additional interpretations
Another 24-foot-high recreation (7.3 m) of the Sforza horse, based on different design interpretation, was manufactured by the Opera Laboratori Fiorentini
- "The Mind of Leonardo" at the Museum of Modern Art, Debrecen, Hungary. (August 16 to December 2, 2007).
- "Leonardo: 500 Years into the Future" at the Tech Museum, San Jose, California, USA (September 27, 2008 to January 25, 2009)
- "The Mind of Leonardo" at the Palazzo Venezia, Rome, Italy (1 May to August 30, 2009)
- "Leonardo da Vinci – Hand of the Genius" Sifly Piazza at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta,[26] (October 6, 2009 to February 6, 2010).
See also
- List of works by Leonardo da Vinci
- Grave Stele of Dexileos
- Horse and Rider (wax sculpture)
- Rearing Horse and Mounted Warrior
- Horses in art
- Vebjørn Sand Da Vinci Project
References
Footnotes
- ^ Leonardo had still been Verrocchio's pupil when his master received the commission, and probably saw the initial plans for it;[5] however, the statue was still only a model in 1483, and not completed until after Verrocchio's 1488 death.
- National Library of Spain in March 1967[9]
- ^ "You made a design for a horse to be cast in bronze, and, unable to cast it, you have in your shame abandoned it. And to think that those Milanese capons believed you!" (Wallace 1972, p. 76)
Citations
- ^ Wallace 1972, p. 65.
- ^ Wallace 1972, p. 64.
- ^ a b c d Wallace 1972, p. 77.
- ^ Wallace 1972, p. 75.
- ^ Wallace 1972, pp. 75–76.
- ^ Wallace 1972, pp. 64, 76.
- ^ a b Arasse (1998).
- ^ a b Wallace 1972, pp. 76–77.
- ^ Wallace 1972, p. 76.
- ^ "Leonardo's horse took 500 years to make". National Geographic Society. April 30, 2019.
- ^ Bortolon, Liana (1967). The Life and Times of Leonardo. London: Paul Hamlyn.
- ^ Wallace 1972, p. 149.
- ^ "Capt Charles C. Dent". National Air and Space Museum. January 16, 2016. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
- ^ "Biography of Charles C. Dent – Da Vinci Science Center". Da Vinci Science Center. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
- ^ "Leonardo and The Horse – Da Vinci Science Center". Da Vinci Science Center. Retrieved July 30, 2017.
- ^ Angela Maderna, Michele Robecchi, Arte Pubblica | Milano, Postmedia Books, Milan, pp. 124-125
- ^ "The Full Story of Leonardo's Horse". Da Vinci Science Center.
- ^ "Leonardo's Horse". Da Vinci Science Center.
- ^ "The Additional Horses". Da Vinci Science Center.
- ^ "The American Horse". Da Vinci Science Center.
- ^ "The Vinci Horse". Da Vinci Science Center.
- ^ "The Baum School Horse". Da Vinci Science Center.
- ^ "The Da Vinci Science Center Horse". Da Vinci Science Center.
- ^ "The Wyoming Horse". Da Vinci Science Center.
- ^ "The Mind of Leonardo". Brunelleschi.imss.fi.it. Retrieved July 23, 2013.
- ^ "Exhibition Featuring Work of Leonardo da Vinci to Open at High Museum in Atlanta, October 2009". High Museum of Art. September 1, 2009. [permanent dead link]
Sources
- Arasse, Daniel (1998). Leonardo da Vinci. Konecky & Konecky. ISBN 978-1-56852-198-5.
- Wallace, Robert (1972) [1966]. The World of Leonardo: 1452–1519. New York: Time-Life Books.
- Conde, Idalina. In Portuguese. 2013-14. Il Cavallo de Leonardo. 3 Parts. In: Cies Working-Papers, 173, 178, 181 (respectively, 81, 74, 84 pages). Published by ISCTE. University Institute of Lisbon. The first extensive study of the modern versions.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- "The colossus of Leonardo da Vinci" – online exhibition by Europeana
- "Leonardo and The Horse" – Da Vinci Science Centre
- "Nina Akamu's Story" – Story of the modern casting to honor Leonardo da Vinci's Horse
- "Location in America" – Pictures and live exhibition of da Vinci's Horse