Sforza Horse Pin Leonardo Da Vinci
Product Description
This gorgeous pin is hand-crafted in USA from sterling silver, a classic design by Jan Palumbo, Great Falls Metal Works.
"Some while ago I went to a special exhibit of Leonardo da Vinci's sketches at the Art Museum. I saw row upon row of drawings of a heroic horse -- a great beast pawing the air from every angle. This went beyond art. This was obsession.
These were sketches for a monument, never built, to Francesco Sforza. Sforza's son, Ludovico, commissioned the statue. He meant to build up his own political stock by making his father three times larger than life.
But Leonardo got no further than the horse Francesco was to ride -- a huge bronze horse, three times life size. The sketches don't show us much of Francesco. But that great snorting, pawing beast is the stuff bad dreams are made of.
It was to have been hollow inside -- an inch-and-a-half-thick shell. It would've weighed 65 tons and gone far beyond the foundry capabilities of Leonardo's age. Worse yet, it would still outreach foundry technique even today.
Leonardo made a clay model of the horse, and he began amassing bronze. But Ludovico lost confidence in the plan. He finally decided all that bronze would serve his political fortunes better in other ways. He had it melted down to make cannons for his war with France. A few years later, French soldiers wrecked Leonardo's clay model. They used it for target practice." --John Lienhard, University of Houston
"Some while ago I went to a special exhibit of Leonardo da Vinci's sketches at the Art Museum. I saw row upon row of drawings of a heroic horse -- a great beast pawing the air from every angle. This went beyond art. This was obsession.
These were sketches for a monument, never built, to Francesco Sforza. Sforza's son, Ludovico, commissioned the statue. He meant to build up his own political stock by making his father three times larger than life.
But Leonardo got no further than the horse Francesco was to ride -- a huge bronze horse, three times life size. The sketches don't show us much of Francesco. But that great snorting, pawing beast is the stuff bad dreams are made of.
It was to have been hollow inside -- an inch-and-a-half-thick shell. It would've weighed 65 tons and gone far beyond the foundry capabilities of Leonardo's age. Worse yet, it would still outreach foundry technique even today.
Leonardo made a clay model of the horse, and he began amassing bronze. But Ludovico lost confidence in the plan. He finally decided all that bronze would serve his political fortunes better in other ways. He had it melted down to make cannons for his war with France. A few years later, French soldiers wrecked Leonardo's clay model. They used it for target practice." --John Lienhard, University of Houston