Leonardo's Horse (also known as the Sforza Horse or the Gran Cavallo ("Great Horse") ) is a project for a bronze sculpture that was commissioned from Leonardo da Vinci in 1482 by the Duke of Milan Ludovico il Moro, but never completed. It was intended to be the largest equestrian statue in the world, a monument to the duke's father Francesco Sforza. Leonardo did extensive preparatory work for it but produced only a large clay model, which was later destroyed.
About five centuries later, Leonardo's surviving designs were used as the basis for sculptures intended to bring the project to fruition.
History
An equestrian monument was commissioned of Leonardo da Vinci in 1482 by Duke of Milan Ludovico il Moro. It was intended to be the largest equestrian statue in the world, a monument to the duke's father Francesco Sforza. Seventy tons of bronze were collected by Ludovico for casting the statue, which approached in height, dwarfing earlier horse monuments by Donatello and by Leonardo's former master, Verrocchio. Leonardo initially planned a more dynamic design than those of his predecessors, initially including a fallen soldier to support the rearing horse, but at some point acquiesced to a more traditional walking horse.
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, which would have been done in separate hollow pieces and featured iron braces for internal support. 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. 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. Leonardo's rival Michelangelo encountered him at some point in Florence, and insulted him by implying that he was unable to perform the casting.
The clay model was used as an archery target by French soldiers when they invaded Milan in 1499 at the beginning of the Second Italian War; it was afterward destroyed by cycles of rains and subsequent freezes. In 1511, Leonardo undertook an equestrian monument as a tomb for Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, for which he again designed a rearing pose and supporting victim—but this was never modelled due to a confederation of Swiss, Spanish, and Venetian forces driving the French from Milan.
Influence and modern versions
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.
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
Charles C. Dent, an amateur artist and flying enthusiast since his youth, strove to become a pioneering United Airlines pilot by profession as well as a dedicated art collector. In 1977, he read in the September issue of National Geographic its feature article on the history of Leonardo's horse and statue. Dent then began a project to re-create the unfinished sculpture in his home town, Allentown, Pennsylvania, and founded the nonprofit organization Leonardo da Vinci's Horse, Inc. (LDVHI) to support the project. His efforts to grow the organization to finance the project proved a difficult task that required more than 15 years.
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 Lou Gehrig's disease on December 25, 1994 he left his private art collection to LDVHI, the sale of which brought more than $1 million to the fund. The LDVHI Board acted on its promise to Dent to complete Dent’s vision.