Untacked

72 ja n ua r y/ f e b r ua r y 2 015 U n tac k e d tHE HorsE in art Planned by a Renaissance master in the 15th century and resurrected by a retired commercial pilot, a Midwest grocery-store magnate and a sculptor from Oklahoma, this equine bronze was five centuries in the making. By tA n i A eVA ns e American Horse how da vinci's Br ainchild Became T he year 1482 was a busy one for leonardo da Vinci. e 30-year-old creative genius had just begun working in milan, where he would stay until 1499, and his days were filled with inventing, designing and build- ing everything from war devices to air conditioning systems. But one special commission came da Vinci's way that year: to build the largest horse sculpture in the world. e bronze equestrian monument would commemorate the father of his new patron, italian duke ludovico sforza (the original design featured the father, francesco, mounted), and da Vinci theorized and sketched out meticulous plans for this unprecedented feat. e duke, meanwhile, set about gathering the metal his artist in residence required—lots and lots of it, almost 160,000 pounds. da Vinci believed he could make a mold of the enormous horse and complete it in one pouring, which would constitute a revolutionary new method in casting at this size. At long last, da Vinci eventually built a 24-foot clay model of the piece in the sforza castle vineyard near milan. "at site, which is today a dense and noisy urban dis- trict, was then a pleasant expanse of open fields, dotted with trees and shrubs, or neatly kept as orchards, vineyards or cit- rus groves," scholar Carlo pedretti described. "one can well imagine the skyline of such a peaceful landscape, bathed in the yellow light of a misty morning of a september day in the lombard plain… and see that skyline suddenly interrupted by the imposing silhouette of leonardo's colossal clay model, standing there with the foreboding of a trojan horse." But years passed as da Vinci focused on other projects— some the result of his own passion and others at the insis- H. MICHael MIley/ flICkr CreaTIVe CoMMonS PHoTo

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