Post on 04-Jun-2020
Leonardo’s Horse
By
Maria J. Falco, PhD
If you ever decide to visit the city of Milan in northern Italy
be sure you see, not just its magnificent Cathedral, the largest
Church in Italy (larger even than the Vatican), but also the
bronze statue of a horse first designed by Leonardo Da Vinci
in 1493.
Then a resident of Milan and already well known for his
engineering designs and works of art, Leonardo sought the
patronage of Duke Ludovico Sforza who, in 1481, had been
proclaimed the ruler of the city. Leonardo was immediately
charged with the task of building the largest equestrian statue
(Gran Cavallo) ever built in honor of his father, Francesco.
Why “the largest?” Well, in those days, such statues were
considered standard ways of advertising the achievements of
men of power, probably in response to that of the Emperor
Marcus Aurelius in Ancient Rome. In 1453 Donatello had
built one for Gattamellata in Padua, and in 1475 Verrocchio
with whom Leonardo had studied earlier, created another for
Colleone in Venice.
So, in 1493, after producing many other works Sforza had
requested, Leonardo presented a twenty-four foot clay model
of the statue, in time to honor the wedding of Ludovico’s
daughter. Unfortunately, the instability of relationships
between Milan, Venice and other cities of northern Italy,
prevented the immediate construction of the horse in bronze.
When France requested free passage to Naples, Sforza was
not expecting that French troops would turn against Milan as
well on their way south. But some French soldiers, seeing the
huge clay model standing in Sforza’s courtyard, thought it
might be hiding soldiers (like the Trojan horse???), so their
archers used it for target practice and caused it to crumble.
Sforza immediately converted the 80 tons of bronze reserved
for the statue to make weapons for the Battle of Fornova, and
the horse never got built---at least not then.
Almost five centuries later, in 1965, Leonardo’s “lost
notebook” was discovered in the Biblioteca Nationale in
Madrid, and in 1977 a retired World War II pilot, Charles
Dent, citizen of Allentown, Pennsylvania, read about it in the
National Geographic and decided to complete the project. A
well-known sculptor, Nina Akamu, agreed to work on it to
pay “homage to the creative genius of Leonardo,” although
she could not guarantee that it would exactly match Leo’s
original design.
Charles Dent died in 1994 before being able to witness its
installation in Milan in 1999. Weighing fifteen tons, it stands
25 feet high (one foot higher than the original) on a base of
white Carrara marble, not far from Milan’s racetrack (the
Hippodrome de San Siro). A second model was installed at
the Frederick Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park in Grand
Rapids, Michigan and two smaller copies were erected in
Allentown, Pa., and in the Piazza della Liberta’ in Vinci, Italy,
Leonardo’s birthplace.
What’s so unusual about Akamu’s design is that, unlike most
bronze statues of horses, it bears no rider on its back (sorry,
Ludovico). In addition, it stands on two feet, one forward and
one back, while most statues of its kind, have only one foot off
the ground (except, of course, those like Andrew Jackson in
Jackson Square, New Orleans, where the horse is rearing
upwards with its tail serving as a counter weight). I first
noticed this when I visited Milan and read the sculptor’s
commentaries posted next to the statue. It seems she built it
in sections with hollow components instead of molding it from
solid bronze. So, indeed, “it is not exactly the same as Da
Vinci’s horse would have been,” but it is indeed a remarkable
achievement. Congratulations, Nina!
PS: The quotes above were found in “Atlas Obscura,” on the
internet.
Emperor Marcus Aurelius, Rome
(My Photo)
Notice the ball beneath the front foot.
Leonardo’s Sketch
Nina Akamu’s Horse, in Milan
(My Photos)