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Rearing Horse and Mounted Warrior
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Rearing Horse and Mounted Warrior
The Rearing Horse and Mounted Warrior or Budapest horse is a bronze sculpture attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. Depicting Francis I of France on a destrier horse, it is estimated to have been cast from a clay or wax model in the first half of the 16th century. The sculpture is in the permanent exhibit of the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts.
The bronze statuette consists of the horse and a detachable rider. It has an applied green patina on top of black paint patina, typical of Renaissance works. Both parts are hollow, and attached together are 24 cm high, 15 cm wide, and 28 cm long (9.4 in by 5.9 in by 11 in), and weigh 2.39 kilograms (5.3 lb). The parts were cast separately, including the horse's rump and tail section that was used to extract the core, but nevertheless at the same time. There is minimal trace of finishing on the statuette; many of the holes and casting flaws on both the horse and the rider have not been chiseled off or filled, which suggests an intent of preserving a model rather than making a final cast.
The rider is wearing a Greek-style helmet with its visor tipped up, encircled by a crown, with a serpent-tailed dragon on the back. He is holding a shield in his left hand, and originally had a sword or a lance in his right hand, but only the hilt is now left. Similar horses and riders, some in exactly the same position, are depicted in many of Leonardo's studies of horses owned by the Milanese nobleman Galéas de Saint-Séverin. The depiction of the rider is less defined than the horse or Leonardo's other works.
Hungarian art historian Mária Aggházy noticed a resemblance between the content-looking rider and the young Francis I of France, soon to be king, and Leonardo's patron from his later years. Francis was an avid participant in jousting tournaments, which in the more entertaining but also more dangerous French style were run with less armour and other equipment than in Italy. Aggházy theorised that the rider's light clothing, likely after a victorious duel, demonstrated bravery on Francis's part as he followed the chivalrous ideals of the Nine Worthies.
In 1516, after invitations from King Francis I of France and his predecessor, Louis XII of France, Leonardo moved to France and entered the service of Francis I. Art chronicler Gian Paolo Lomazzo, close to Leonardo's heirs, wrote in 1584 that Leonardo had made several models of horses for Francis. This statuette is believed to be one of them.
Towards the end of his life, Leonardo was working on several equestrian monuments, and did several studies of horses on worksheets that have been preserved in the Royal Collection in Windsor Castle. This statuette was depicted in sketches from c.1490 and c.1517–1518 with and without the rider. By then Leonardo was unable to continue with artwork much beyond sketches, but did for instance supervise bronze casting of statues at the king's Palace of Fontainebleau.
By 1540, Leonardo's follower Leone Leoni was also commissioned to create an equestrian statuette while he was a court sculptor to Charles V, who governed Milan at the time. In 1549 and 1550, Leoni sent several letters to Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle requesting that Leonardo's statuette from the king's court be sent back to him. An equestrian bronze model was recorded in the Leoni collection at their home Casa degli Omenoni before the collection was dispersed by 1620.
The outline of the statuette also features in a c.1545 scrollwork from the Fontainebleau workshops of Francis I. The scrollwork has a detailed design for the decoration of a horse's chanfron head armour to be used in jousting.
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Rearing Horse and Mounted Warrior
The Rearing Horse and Mounted Warrior or Budapest horse is a bronze sculpture attributed to Leonardo da Vinci. Depicting Francis I of France on a destrier horse, it is estimated to have been cast from a clay or wax model in the first half of the 16th century. The sculpture is in the permanent exhibit of the Budapest Museum of Fine Arts.
The bronze statuette consists of the horse and a detachable rider. It has an applied green patina on top of black paint patina, typical of Renaissance works. Both parts are hollow, and attached together are 24 cm high, 15 cm wide, and 28 cm long (9.4 in by 5.9 in by 11 in), and weigh 2.39 kilograms (5.3 lb). The parts were cast separately, including the horse's rump and tail section that was used to extract the core, but nevertheless at the same time. There is minimal trace of finishing on the statuette; many of the holes and casting flaws on both the horse and the rider have not been chiseled off or filled, which suggests an intent of preserving a model rather than making a final cast.
The rider is wearing a Greek-style helmet with its visor tipped up, encircled by a crown, with a serpent-tailed dragon on the back. He is holding a shield in his left hand, and originally had a sword or a lance in his right hand, but only the hilt is now left. Similar horses and riders, some in exactly the same position, are depicted in many of Leonardo's studies of horses owned by the Milanese nobleman Galéas de Saint-Séverin. The depiction of the rider is less defined than the horse or Leonardo's other works.
Hungarian art historian Mária Aggházy noticed a resemblance between the content-looking rider and the young Francis I of France, soon to be king, and Leonardo's patron from his later years. Francis was an avid participant in jousting tournaments, which in the more entertaining but also more dangerous French style were run with less armour and other equipment than in Italy. Aggházy theorised that the rider's light clothing, likely after a victorious duel, demonstrated bravery on Francis's part as he followed the chivalrous ideals of the Nine Worthies.
In 1516, after invitations from King Francis I of France and his predecessor, Louis XII of France, Leonardo moved to France and entered the service of Francis I. Art chronicler Gian Paolo Lomazzo, close to Leonardo's heirs, wrote in 1584 that Leonardo had made several models of horses for Francis. This statuette is believed to be one of them.
Towards the end of his life, Leonardo was working on several equestrian monuments, and did several studies of horses on worksheets that have been preserved in the Royal Collection in Windsor Castle. This statuette was depicted in sketches from c.1490 and c.1517–1518 with and without the rider. By then Leonardo was unable to continue with artwork much beyond sketches, but did for instance supervise bronze casting of statues at the king's Palace of Fontainebleau.
By 1540, Leonardo's follower Leone Leoni was also commissioned to create an equestrian statuette while he was a court sculptor to Charles V, who governed Milan at the time. In 1549 and 1550, Leoni sent several letters to Antoine Perrenot de Granvelle requesting that Leonardo's statuette from the king's court be sent back to him. An equestrian bronze model was recorded in the Leoni collection at their home Casa degli Omenoni before the collection was dispersed by 1620.
The outline of the statuette also features in a c.1545 scrollwork from the Fontainebleau workshops of Francis I. The scrollwork has a detailed design for the decoration of a horse's chanfron head armour to be used in jousting.
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