LEONARDO DA VINCI (VINCI 1452-AMBOISE 1519)
The chest and hindquarters of a horse
c.1517-18RCIN 912303
A study of the front quarters of a horse, with the off fore-leg raised and bent back; with the letters a,b,c,d,m indicating the action of the horse; with a study of a horse's chest; a study of the hind-quarters of a horse; with a note, in the top left corrner.
In 1516 Leonardo moved from Rome to the court of the young French king, Francis I, in the Loire valley. He seems to have started work on a project for another equestrian monument, probably to the king himself. Once more, Leonardo began a systematic study of the external form of the horse. These drawings of the animal’s front and rear are reminiscent of the studies for the Sforza monument of thirty years earlier.
crowned Catherine wheel (partial), cf 912309, 912291, 912292
stamp, ER VII, crowned, in oval: Lugt 901