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)