. Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science. dos horse represented as walking or galloping ? Thisis a problem over which torrents of ink have flowed. LouisCourajod calls in the testimony of Paolo Giovio to prove that it wasprancing ( vehementer incitatus et anhelans), but may he not attachtoo strict a meaning to this ? To my mind, the most forcible and, atthe same time harmonious, composition is that with the rearing horse,in one sketch with uplifted head, in another with the head bent overthe breast. It is by the aid of these two sketches that I prefer toevoke the image of Leonard
. Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science. dos horse represented as walking or galloping ? Thisis a problem over which torrents of ink have flowed. LouisCourajod calls in the testimony of Paolo Giovio to prove that it wasprancing ( vehementer incitatus et anhelans), but may he not attachtoo strict a meaning to this ? To my mind, the most forcible and, atthe same time harmonious, composition is that with the rearing horse,in one sketch with uplifted head, in another with the head bent overthe breast. It is by the aid of these two sketches that I prefer toevoke the image of Leonardos masterpiece. Some years after the destruction of the famous equestrian statue, 1 Un cavallo di relievo di plastica, fatto di sua mano, che ha il cavallier LeoneAretino statouario {Trattato delta Pittura^ ed. of 1584, p. 177). See Courajod)Alexandre Lenoir, vol. ii. p. 95.—Plon, Leone Leoni, pp. 56, 63, 188. This author isinclined to think that this was the very model of which Leoni superintended the castingin Paris, 1549. X 2 ^56 LEONARDO DA VINCI. Michelangelo, meeting Leonardo in the streets of Florence, tauntedhim bitterly before a group of friends with having abandoned his workunfinished : Thou who madest the model of a horse to cast it inbronze, and finding thyself unable to do so, wast forced with shame togive up the attempt. Had Michelangelo known of the trials that awaited him in con-nection with his own work for the tomb of Pope Julius II., he wouldperhaps have been less severe upon an undertaking to which his rivalmight have applied his own phrase, calling it the tragedy of his life. None the less, it isdeeply to be deplored thatLeonardo was not moreenergetic in his effortsto rescue the magnificentwork which formed hischief title to renown asa sculptor. He musthave had a strong strainof fatalism in him towitness the destructionof the masterpiece whichhad occupied the bestyears of his manhoodwithout one word ofregret. His note books overflow with records of every
Size: 1549px × 1614px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublishernewyorkcscribnerss
