For Thursday Art-Day – Leonardo da Vinci’s horses…

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452 – 1519 Renaissance) appeared to love horses. We know Leonardo’s famous portrait painting, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper wall painting but did you know Leonardo Da Vinci painted and sculpted horses with an almost lifelike quality. These informal sketches leave one breathless and show us how much Leonardo loved nature and horses. No one, could possibly draw or paint horses the way Leonardo did without a deep love for the subject. We see how minutely he studied the anatomy of the horse, and how clearly he observed the position of the muscles and veins. We also know that Leonardo was more than a gifted boy. In fact he was a genius whose powerful mind will always remain an object of wonder and admiration.

Study of Horses

“The heavens often rain down the richest gifts on human beings, but sometimes they bestow with lavish abundance upon a single individual beauty, grace and ability, so that whatever he does, every action is so divine that he distances all other men, and clearly displays how his greatness is a gift of God and not an acquirement of human art. Men saw this in Leonardo.”
Georgio Vasari (1511-1574)
(author of  ‘The Lives of The Artists’)

Rider on rearing horse

The fall of phaeton

“The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding.” – Leonardo