The Creation of Leonardo Da Vinci's Horse

Leonardo Da Vinci was a masterful artist. Ironically, though, one of his most famous masterpieces, Leonardo Da Vinci's Horse, was not actually constructed by him, rather by a woman several hundred years later. This magnificent statue reaches higher into the sky than a two-story building and is made of pure bronze. Although many know it as Leonardo Da Vinci's Horse, the actual caste was done by Nina Akamu. The reason it is often thought to be created by Leonardo da Vinci, is because he was commissioned to make this equestrian statue by Francesco Sforza and originally started in 1482. His intent was to build this statue with seventy tons of bronze. In fact, the bronze was set aside for this purpose. Unfortunately, due to war there were heavy demands for bronze, and despite the bronze being set aside, it was needed for war. Despite being started in 1482, it was not finished until 1999 by Nina Akamu.

Da Vinci's Drawings of This Great Horse

Leonardo da Vinci always took his time carefully crafting each masterpiece, often taking years on his projects. The horse was no exception, for he spent sixteen years working on it. He began his work by studying the horse, and drawing extensive accurate photos of them in order to better understand how to create this masterpiece. Despite his many drawings, no one knows for sure what the position of the horse was when he initially set out on this adventure. Although what Nina Akuma is often thought to be an exact replica of what he wanted to create, the true appearance of the statue that da Vinci's final project would have looked like is unknown. Although many researchers believe that Nina Akuma's horse is fairly accurate to his intentions, she has stated that she never intended to make a replica of Leonardo da Vinci's horse, but this horse is supposed to be in homage of the great work that Leonardo da Vinci did.

Da Vinci Finishin The Clay Model of this Equestrian Statue

In 1492 he finished a clay model of the horse, which was a replication of what he planned to create. At the time there were only two other equestrian statues, and this one was going to profoundly exceed their size. One was Donatello's statue in Padua and Verrocchio's statue in Venice.

Afterward, Leonardo made great plans for it's casting. Michelangelo must have felt competition with Da Vinci, because he rudely criticized Leonard's attempt and even told him that he would be unable to do such a great fete. Unfortunately for Leonardo Da Vinci, Michelangelo was correct due to a need for cannon balls in the war during November 1949 to defend themselves against Charles VIII. Later even the clay statue was used for target practice, and eventually collapsed. It was at this time that Leonard Da Vinci ended up becoming an architect making plans to protect against invasion during the Second Italian War.

Nina Akamu Rectifying An Old Idea

Nina Akamu wanted to rectify this idea, by paying homage to Leonardo da Vinci. She spent three years working on this project. She began by creating a master horse that stands eight feet tall. In order to enlarge her master equine, she used a pantograph, and had many assistance assist in the measuring of this statue.

Even with the large horse, she followed da Vinci's lead by first creating it with clay. After she put clay on it, she then used a blue rubber mold and applied a fiberglass resin mother mold on top of that. Once the statue was ready for bronze, they had to heat it up to 2000 degrees. As you may expect, she was unable to mold it together in one shot, so she did each piece seperately, and then welded the pieces together.

It was first unveiled in Milan, Italy, then transferred to Grand Rapids Michigan at the Frederick Meijer Gardens, where it still is today. You can go up to and touch it. Many people, including myself have laid underneath the lowered back foot, and taken pictures as if being stepped by this monumental giant horse. Seriously, having seen it many times in person, it is a sight to see, and it amazes me every time I see it.

www.studioequus.com/leohorse.html

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_da_Vinci