JUST HORSING AROUND: "THE COLOSSUS OF LEONARDO DA VINCI" COURTESY OF EUROPEANA

Exhibition Reviews | Madison Carmichael

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I don’t know about you, but an unfinished project haunts me like little else. One has to wonder if Leonardo da Vinci felt the same about his never-completed equestrian monument of Francesco Sforza. Luckily for us, the reams of notes and drawings of said monument remain, preserved by the National Library of Spain, so a virtual reconstruction of Leonardo’s design and casting process is now possible. The story of the unfinished equestrian bronze comprises “The Colossus of Leonardo da Vinci,” a special online exhibition produced by Europeana, in collaboration with the National Library of Spain and the Museo Galileo. 

Armed with Leonardo’s original notes and drawings, experts from Florence’s Museo Galileo sought to marry his original manuscripts to new digital reconstructions so as to finally build the bronze that was never built – or else to bring it to life as best they could, with the technology available to us now. 

The title page of the online exhibition. This functions largely like the introductory panel, but it also gives a sneak peek at one of Leonardo's designs. (Source)

Much like I mentioned last month, online and digital exhibitions ask that you create your own atmosphere. While my current residence is not nearly as chaotic as it was, I once again headed over to YouTube to see what I could find in terms of ambiance and soundscapes (here are a few). 

“The Colossus of Leonardo da Vinci” has seven chapters: the protagonists, two concepts for the statue, an innovative moulding process, a multi-furnace foundry, two different casting methods, the project is abandoned, and modern evocations. This chaptered approach guides you through Leonardo’s design and engineering process, the events that led to the project’s abandonment (an invasion, which necessitated that the bronze set aside for the monument be used to cast artillery instead, followed by an occupation and subsequent fall of the Sforzas), and modern evocations of the monument.

A portrait of Galeazzo Maria Sforza found within the exhibition. He was the original patron of the project. (Source)

In its structure, “The Colossus of Leonardo da Vinci” straddles the past and the present. The exhibition begins in the late 1400s, when the Duke of Milan, Galeazzo Maria Sforza, conceived of an equestrian monument to celebrate his dynasty. The project was propelled by his successor, and when Leonardo received the commission for this project, he proceeded to absolutely run away with it. In perhaps a characteristic move, Leonardo transformed the commission into an “epic undertaking,” one that was entirely unheard of in both the history of art and in the scope of casting methods, as he set out to produce this enormous, equestrian monument – I say enormous, because this monument would require more than sixty tons of bronze and would stand over seven metres tall – in a single cast. 

From here, the exhibition moves through the two concept designs for the monument – a rider on a prancing horse vs. a walking horse – the moulding process, which was enormously complex, the foundry Leonardo envisioned for the casting process, and two different casting processes that he considered.

This 3D reconstruction renders the vertical foundry system which comprised of one of Leonardo's concepts for casting. It was done by Andrea Bernadoni and Riccardo Braga of the Museo Galileo. (Source)

This image depict the original drawings as done by Leonardo, conceptualizing a foundry to cast the horse. Compare it to the 3D rendering above! (Source)

This exhibition takes an enormously interdisciplinary approach to one, unfinished project of Leonardo da Vinci’s. It is at times historical, or art historical, and at others it is deeply technical, drawing on technological design and renderings. As someone deeply interested in the historical contexts of most things, I found it fascinating to peer into this specific moment in time, and the events surrounding it, and to learn through Leonardo’s notes and drawings more about the technology of the 1400s and about how, even hypothetically, a monument may have been cast at this point in time. 

As mentioned, what’s interesting about this exhibition is how it ties the historical to the present – how it straddles the past and the present. This is most evident in the images interspersed throughout. In the chapters detailing the design and engineering process, modern 3D reconstructions are displayed alongside the historical equivalents done by Leonardo. It is in this way that this exhibition endeavors to bring this unfinished monument to life, using the tools we now have in concert with the plans Leonardo left behind.

Two modern evocations of this very project exist worldwide! (Source)

The exhibition closes with two modern evocations, or realizations, of Leonardo’s unfinished monument. One was completed under the direction of Hidemichi Tanaka, which was unveiled in 1989 in Nagoya City, Japan. The other was completed by American artist Nina Akamu, which was inaugurated in Milan in 1999, and it can still be found in front of the hippodrome of San Siro. 

There’s something poetic in that, I think. While neither of these modern projects were developed using the casting techniques that Leonardo penned just about five hundred years ago, they were both completed regardless. Add to that the 3D reconstructions completed by the Museo Galileo that do portray his techniques, it makes me feel like his unfinished monument has been finished, in a way. 

After all, a bronze, equestrian monument does stand in Milan, at what was ostensibly the planned site of Leonardo’s original horse. So, perhaps we have indeed brought this unfinished project to life, as best as we are able.