The horse—perhaps more than any other animal—has helped us survive, thrive, and conquer. They’ve provided our transport, plowed our fields, powered our machinery, and bravely charged into battle.
Coinciding with the Olympic and Paralympic Games equestrian events held on the Versailles grounds, the National Museum of the Palaces of Versailles and Trianon presents its pioneering “Horse in Majesty, at the Heart of a Civilisation” exhibition.
The exhibition focuses on the horse in every conceivable aspect of human civilization, including war, agriculture, horsemanship, and horse pageantry at royal courts, circuses, festivals, and military events.
Some 300 works are on display, ranging from the 1500s to the first day of World War I, when the automobile reduced our reliance on horse power. Exhibits include paintings, drawings, sculptures, decorative works like silverware, and horse ornaments such as armor, bridles, and ceremonial saddles. Many of these objects and artworks have never before been exhibited, and some have never been displayed in France. For the first time, anatomical horse studies by Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) and his master, Andrea del Verrocchio (1435–88), are displayed together.
The Equestrian Arts at Versailles
Traditionally, if a sovereign excelled in the equestrian arts, it indicated his ability to govern well. “The understanding that existed between the sovereign and his horse symbolised the monarch’s relationship with his subjects,” the exhibition book notes.Louis XIV (1638–1715) commissioned the commanding Great and Small Stables at Versailles; the former housed the king’s horses and the equestrian school, while the latter housed the royal household’s horses. During Louis XIV’s reign (1643–1715), he employed nearly 1,500 stable staff. By the 18th century, the estate stabled over 2,000 horses.
Architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart built the stables on the edge of the Place d’Armes (place-of-arms), facing the palace, indicating the horse’s important role at the royal court.
Hardouin-Mansart’s ornate stable designs, some of which feature in the exhibition, became architectural blueprints for royal stables across Europe.
The Equestrian Age
A stroll through Versailles’s grounds shows just how much our ancestors revered horses. The ancient sun god Apollo’s chariot horses thrash through the waters in the gilded fountain by Italian-born French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Tuby (1635–1700). In the recently restored bronze equestrian statue of Louis XIV, French sculptors Pierre Cartellier (1757–1831) and Louis Petitot (1794–1862) depicted the Sun King riding his faithful steed as if he is still commanding his troops at the Place d’Armes, where troops traditionally gathered.According to the exhibition book, Cartellier based Louis XIV’s poised horse on the ancient Roman equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius. Renaissance artists revived the equestrian pose, popularized in ancient art, to show a ruler’s character in war and peace.
Many European monarchs favored Spanish horses for their equestrian portraits, including French kings from Francis I to Louis XVI. In 1600, King Henri IV’s head groom said: “Comparing the best horses, I give the Spanish horse first place for its perfection, because it is the most beautiful, noble, graceful and courageous.”
French court painter René-Antoine Houasse’s (1645–1710) equestrian portrait of Louis XIV is featured in the exhibition. Houasse rendered a calm, self–assured Sun King, whose horse rears like Aurelius’s antique statue. The Sun King is upright in his saddle, showing skill and poise as he gently holds the reins in one hand and a lance in the other. His dress coat, breeches, saddle, and saddle cloth feature a lacelike network of fine gold and silver embroidery.
Flemish artist Justus Sustermans’s (1597–1681) equestrian portrait of 7-year-old Prince Leopold de’ Medici (1617–75), the youngest child of Grand Duke Cosimo II and Archduchess Maria Magdalena of Austria, is on display in France for the first time. Dressed in his finery, the prince sits poised on a white Andalusian mare, its lustrous mane tied to the saddle cloth. Sustermans deftly painted details, such as the gem-encrusted bridle and the sumptuous textiles embroidered in colored silks and gold thread.
Exhibition visitors can see lavish examples of similar equestrian equipment up close, including King Francis I’s intricate stirrups, and exquisite ceremonial velvet- and brocade-trimmed saddles encrusted with gems and embroidered in silver and gold.
Horse Portraiture
High-ranking people who commissioned large portrait paintings started to commission them for their animals—from their livestock and sporting favorites to their trusty steeds and family companions.As the founder of Swedish painting, Hamburg-born artist David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl’s (1628–98) powerful renderings of King Charles XI’s horses show the artist’s skill as well as the king’s might and wealth.
Dutch artist Paulus Potter (1625–54) epitomized animal portraiture. His painting of a striking piebald horse shows a handsome specimen on a country estate. Potter rendered its plump haunch, refined muscles, and velvety, shiny coat. The horse raises its head and pricks its ears, alert to the distant hunting group.
According to “The Oxford Companion to Art,” “W. Bode, a distinguished critic of Dutch painting, wrote that Potter was so much in tune with animals that his portraits of them are always free from anthropomorphism.”
Some artists strove to show the subtle characteristics of the horse. In the 19th century, French artist Théodore Géricault (1791–1824) painted an almost haunting close-up of a white horse’s head, conveying the animal’s inner spirit. Horses reacting to thunder became a popular subject matter, as seen in French artist Carle Vernet’s (1758–1836) electrifying painting “Horses Frightened by the Thunderstorm.”
French naturalist Georges Louis Leclerc de Buffon (1707–88), in volume 5 of “Natural History, General and Particular, With a Description of the King’s Cabinet,” described how a horse “gives himself up without reserve, and declines no service; he exerts all his strength, and, that his obedience may be complete, will strain every nerve till he even expires.”
Our reliance on horse power has waned, but our awe for the often enigmatic horse endures. In his novel “War Horse,” Michael Morpurgo writes of Joey the horse: “There’s a nobility in his eye, a regal serenity about him. Does he not personify all that men try to be and never can be? I tell you, my friend, there’s divinity in a horse, and specially in a horse like this. God got it right the day he created them.”
