Is the sculpture world suffering from a mine-is-bigger-than-yours mindset?
British artist Mark Wallinger, former winner of England’s coveted Turner Prize, plans a 170-foot-high white horse in Kent County. And the question is, why?
Granted, the horse plays a part in the British tradition of fox-hunting. And granted, Wallinger had a horse once he called “A Real Work of Art.” But a horse the size of an eight-story commercial building? Can it be that Wallinger is trying to outdo Leonardo da Vinci?
Leonardo also planned the largest equestrian statue in the world, but never got past a preparatory clay model - likely because hedidn’t think much of sculpture. In fact, the Old Master’s low opinion of the art form was pretty low. In his The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, he wrote:
“I am content to pronounce between painting and sculpture; saying that painting is the more beautiful and the more imaginative and the more copious, while sculpture is the more durable but it has nothing else.”
Even so, at least Leonardo had a reason to monumentalize a horse. Having written of universal connections, he believed that man is really a quadruped that, in infancy crawls on all fours, and when grown, moves his limbs like a horse trotting. As well, he was an animal lover from childhood, backing up his feelings by being a vegetarian.
But here’s the thing. While these super-size sculptures of horses don’t exist, a life-size sculpture of a horse does, and it’s a beaut! Besides the horse, there’s also rider. Behold, Anna Hyatt Huntington‘s Joan of Arc horse - the first equestrian statue by a woman - rising tall in her stirrups in full battle gear, sword outstretched.
Huntington modeled the horse after one from a fire station team and modeled the figure – down to accurate renditions of arms and armor, after her niece in costume sitting astride a barrel.
And Huntington doesn’t mince hooves: Her steed, prancing, rearing - nostrils flaring, mane and tail flying - is intensely fiery. Clearly, Huntington’s effort was about more than the “durability” that Leonardo talked about.
To get the image just right, she made seven clay models ranging from little to life-sizes. She also consulted a medieval art expert to get the armor just right.
Considering such effort, Wallinger’s plan for a plain ol’ horse made cyclopeanseems plain silly.
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