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)