Sculpture & Casting
The Great Horse and the Art of Bronze
As practising myself the art of sculpture no less than that of painting, and doing both the one and the other in the same degree.
— Leonardo da Vinci
Overview
Leonardo's greatest sculptural project was the Gran Cavallo — a colossal bronze equestrian statue commissioned by Ludovico Sforza to honor his father, Francesco Sforza. At over 7 meters tall, it would have been the largest bronze equestrian statue ever made. Leonardo spent years preparing — studying horses, developing the proportions, and designing an innovative casting method.
The clay model was completed and displayed in Milan in 1493 to universal astonishment. But the bronze — over 70 tons of it — was diverted to make cannon when France threatened Milan. The clay model was destroyed by French soldiers who used it for target practice in 1499. Leonardo never completed another sculpture.
Notes for the Statue
Studying the horse
Of that at Pavia the movement more than anything else is deserving of praise. It is better to copy the antique than modern work. You cannot combine utility with beauty as it appears in fortresses and men. The trot is almost of the nature of the free horse. Where natural vivacity is lacking it is necessary to create it fortuitously.
C.A. 147 r. b
On the Sculptor's Art
Light, shadow, and the carved form
The sculptor cannot represent transparent or luminous things.
C.A. 215 v. d
The sculptor cannot work without the help of shadows and lights, since without these the material carved would remain all of one colour; and by the ninth of this book it is shown that a level surface illumined by uniform light does not vary in any part the clearness or obscurity of its natural colour.
The Great Horse is Leonardo's greatest heartbreak. Years of work, a revolutionary casting technique, and then the bronze gets melted for cannon and French archers shoot arrows at the clay model. It's a symbol of everything that went wrong in his life — genius thwarted by politics and war. In 1999, a full-scale bronze horse was finally cast from his designs and erected in Milan. Five hundred years late. -D