Once Upon A Time There Was A Horse

In the 1450's, a wealthy patron, the guy who lived in the castle we went to the other day, commissioned Leonardo Da Vinci to create a statue of his Dad upon a horse. Leo did, only to be told that the horse wasn't grand enough. So, Da Vinci came up with a second model, in clay, which passed the test and was going to be used to create a bronze statue of the beast.

War came. All available bronze was required for the war effort. The clay horse was still standing in the open courtyard of the castle. Enter those French scoundrels with their guns. "Voila un cheval! Boomez! boomez! Pas de cheval!

Fast forward to the 1980's. Enter a wealthy American art lover. He reads about the deceased horse. "Let's do it!", he says. "The drawings are still with us even if the horse is not." He spends the next 15 years rallying people to the cause. But, in 1994, he dies. If he had had his way, the horse would have been in his home town, Allentown, PA. But, he died. The cause was not abandoned and finally, in 1999, behold, the largest horse statue in the world.  It's at the Hippodrome Racetrack in Milan, not the Castle. (Actually, there are a couple of copies in the USA)

       Pretty cool eh?








The Leonardo Horse project involves 13 smaller, life size, clay horses that have been given to 13 artists in Italy and around the world. They are to be decorated by the artists and they will all be brought to the Hippodrome this coming September to be part of ANOTHER!! celebration of Leonardo's 500th anniversary.

This one was already there. It had a man holding a bunny by it's ears as he rode the horse. Nope, I don't understand either.

However, it was a lovely park and a peaceful way to spend a morning and contemplate the end

of our trip that is.