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Leonardo's Horse
The horse created by Leonardo is a sculpture project started by Leonardo da Vinci, but never finished. He managed only to complete a model in clay. In 1482 the Duke of Milan commissioned Leonardo to build the largest equestrian statue in the world. Leonardo decided to start with a clay model. It was destroyed by invading French soldiers in Milan in 1499.
Leonardo's techniques of study and representation are still used today in contemporary sculpture and contemporary canvas prints. Over the generations, countless artists have tried to extend the techniques started by Leonardo.
In 1977, Charles Dent began work to complete the unfinished sculpture which would run to a cost of 2.5M USD. In 1988, painter Garth Herrick started to work part-time on the horse. During the 17 years that Leonardo had worked on the horse, he had produced a lot of material of the physical aspects of horses to supplement his notes about the complex moulding and casting procedures required for the horse. But the lack of a final design of the statue left later scholars a good deal of lea-way for their inspiration. Nina Akamu for instance studied the notes left by the great artist of the horse. She thought about his work on anatomy. Akamu also studied breeds of horses from Iberia, such as the Andalusian, which were used in the middle ages. In 1999, Akamu‘s work, the 24 foot tall horse was erected at the hippodrome de San Siro in Milan.
There are lots of examples of contemporary wall art around now which pander to people high regard of horse subject matter.
Copies of the work were produced. The second sculpture is now visible in Meijer's garden, a natural park in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. In 2001, a smaller bronze replica was placed at the Piazza della Libertà, Vinci, Italy - the birth place of Leonardo.
A recreation of the Andalusian horse, based on a different design was commissioned for the Science History Museum in Florence. It is made up of 6 parts and can be taken down and put back up. It has been available to view in many places during exhibitions relating to Leonardo.
Equestrian imagary contained in contemporary canvas prints are a big favourite of those who love art even now.
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