A gallop through millennia reveals how horses became symbols of triumph and afforded artists a showcase for technical skills.
St. Mark’s Horses
The horses of Saint Mark are synonymous with Venice, Italy. For centuries, these dynamically sculpted horses stood guard on the façade of the city’s most famous and important religious building—St. Mark’s Basilica on the eastern end of the titular square. In the latter part of the 20th century, due to elemental threats, they were lowered from their perch on the building’s loggia over the central portal’s arch and relocated to the safety of the basilica’s interior.
For centuries, scholars have debated the identity of the horses’ maker and even the civilization from which they derive. Potential attributions have included several of the great sculptors from the Classical Greek era, with the artist Lysippus and an origin city of Corinth being the most favored. In the 18th century, scholars advanced the theory that they came not from ancient Greece but rather the Roman Empire.
Opinions still vary, thus a wide range—between the fifth century B.C. and A.D. fourth century—is given as their date. However, such factors as the use of mercury in the casting, features of the horses’ heads, and specific components of their metal forms suggest a Roman dating, specifically the era of Emperor Septimius Severus (A.D. 145–211).
The horses reflect great realism: flashing eyes, flaring nostrils, bulging veins, accentuated muscles, cropped manes with tufts, and graceful tails. These powerful statues were constructed by casting a number of individual segments and then binding them together. The specific technique used was the indirect casting method.
In this practice, after an original model is made by the sculptor, a second model is made in wax, known as the intermodel, which is then cast in metal. The horses of Saint Mark are made of a bronze alloy, a mixture of tin and copper. However, scientific analysis has revealed that the composition is almost pure copper. This is most unusual and rare as it would have necessitated a much higher temperature, difficult to achieve, than traditional bronze for the casting process.
In 1204, after the Fourth Crusade’s sack of Constantinople, the horses arrived in Venice as plunder. Their former setting was a hippodrome, an ancient type of stadium for horse and chariot racing. This was a fitting location since the figures were originally sculpted as being yoked to a “quadriga,” or four-horse chariot. It is unlikely that their pre-Constantinople history will ever be fully known, adding to their mystery.
This team of four horses, the only such surviving example from antiquity, was attached to the exterior of St. Mark’s Basilica about 60 years after being pillaged. Standing proud, they symbolized Venice’s crusader triumph and political power. The horses played a prominent role in the art and culture of their adopted city and beyond.
Many considered them to be the embodiment of the ideal horse in art, and they influenced subsequent equestrian statues. During the Early Renaissance, small-scale copies of the original horses were made and broadly circulated. Famous Florentine artists such as Donatello and Andrea del Verrocchio were inspired by their form. The horses also make an appearance in Gentile Bellini’s celebrated circa 1496 painting “Procession in St. Mark’s Square.”
Their tenure was interrupted by Napoleon Bonaparte’s conquest of Venice in 1797. They were again plundered and, this time, removed to Paris. Historian Charles Freeman in his book “The Horses of St. Mark’s: A Story of Triumph in Byzantium, Paris and Venice” writes that they were paraded into Paris in a “re-enactment of a Roman triumphal procession,” which would have traditionally featured a “quadriga.”
The Stallions of Stubbs
The most famous portrait of a horse is arguably the monumental canvas “Whistlejacket.” This 18th-century painting by George Stubbs (1724–1806) is considered one of the most important British paintings of the period. It seems that Stubbs was a self-taught artist. Classified as a sporting painter, his subjects included domesticated, wild, and exotic animals set frequently in vividly painted landscapes. He was adept at producing both large- and small-scale works and was obsessed with anatomy. His careful study of real animals, especially horses, served him well in his work. These renderings are not only accurate but also expressive, eloquent, and lyrical.
His greatest career success came during the 1760s. Scenes from this period typically show racing, hunting, and other animal compositions, and were commissioned by illustrious patrons with the leisure time for such sports. Critical interest in Stubbs’s work waned after this decade, and it took till the 20th century for a major reassessment of his oeuvre. He is now considered one of the most innovative British artists of the 1700s.
Against a solid pale-gold background, Whistlejacket, with his shiny, coppery chestnut coat and auburn-to-white tail and mane, prances on the canvas. The naturalistic details are extraordinary and give the illusion of a classically sculpted horse. Whistlejacket’s head is small with delicately modeled ears, but these features are countered by a broad forehead and large, flaring nostrils. Visible brushwork is employed to convey the texture and movement of his tail. Despite Stubbs’s peerless knowledge of horse anatomy, he does take artistic license with Whistlejacket’s pose to increase the drama of the work. Such a posture that shows both the right knee and hoof underside, as well as the forehead and rump, would have been impossible in real life. Specific inspiration may have come from sculpture.
The Prominent Animal Painter
Across the English Channel in the following century, the most prominent animal painter of her day was the French Realist artist Rosa Bonheur (1822–1899). She was influenced by the Romantic era canvases of her countrymen Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix, as well as Stubbs.
In 1865, she was elevated to the Legion of Honor. Her works were internationally popular in her lifetime, but the assessments of them declined in the mid-20th century. However, in recent years, interest in her work has been spurred; a major retrospective was exhibited last year to mark the 200th anniversary of her birth.
Bonheur began her artistic training at a young age, studying under her father who was an artist himself. Drawing from life, she was passionately curious about diverse species and their habitats. Similar to Stubbs, Bonheur’s work is highly realistic in terms of anatomy, while also being expressive and psychologically insightful. She, too, was comfortable with small, life-size, and monumental formats.
“The Horse Fair” is Bonheur’s masterpiece, which was inspired by classical sculpture, especially the famous Parthenon frieze. Her painting caused a sensation when shown in the 1853 Paris Salon. Its popularity was enhanced by the broad distribution of reproductions and the display of the original work in a number of exhibitions in continental Europe, Britain, and the United States. By the time The Metropolitan Museum of Art was gifted “The Horse Fair” in 1887 by Cornelius Vanderbilt, it was one of the most celebrated works of its era.
The canvas shows a real Parisian horse market on the leafy Boulevard de l’Hôpital. To prepare her complex composition, Bonheur went twice a week to the market over a period of a year and a half to sketch the scene. With its frenzied, kinetic movement, this work beautifully captures the physical power of horses as well as their spirit. The animals realistically twist and rear with flexed muscles and flying manes. There are no horse buyers in Bonheur’s composition, but handlers manipulate the horses to showcase their strength, creating an atmosphere of wildness. The dappled white horses are Percherons, a breed traditionally used for hauling weights, yet Bonheur endows them with majesty as if they were as prized as the racing Whistlejacket.
The horses of Saint Mark, “Whistlejacket,” and “The Horse Fair” are marvelous artistic feats in both skill and aesthetic that have captivated viewers since their creation. Made across millennia, each example embodies the symbolism of their epoch. The movement, power, and individuality of these masterpieces capture humankind’s longstanding appreciation of equines.
