| Leonardo is known to have kept horses, along | | | | process of raising the necessary funds to build |
| with dogs, cats and other animals. Although | | | | the full-scale, bronze horse. His plan was to give it |
| numerous animal studies are found throughout | | | | as a gift to the Italians from the Americans. Being |
| Leonardo's drawings, his most frequent animal | | | | something of a sculptor himself, he built a clay |
| sketches are of horses. His renderings are | | | | model of the horse to Leonardo's specifications. |
| extremely detailed and life-like. He infused his | | | | And, although Charles Dent died in 1994, his |
| renditions of animals with nobility - a characteristic | | | | dream lived on and over four-million dollars was |
| that stemmed from his deep love and respect | | | | raised. On September 10th, 1999, exactly 500 |
| for the animals he sketched and painted. | | | | years after the French destroyed Leonardo's clay |
| In the mid 1480s, Leonardo moved from Florence | | | | model, the bronze statue was unveiled in Milan. On |
| to Milan. At that time, Milan was one of the most | | | | October 7th, 1999, a second casting of the horse |
| powerful city-states in Northern Italy. And, it's | | | | was unveiled in Grand Rapids, Michigan. This |
| Duke, Ludovico Sforza, commissioned Leonardo | | | | second horse is known as the American Horse. |
| to make a horse like no other to honor the | | | | Along with his studies of mammals, Leonardo |
| Duke's father, Francesco Sforzo. It was to be a | | | | made hundreds of bird sketches. In the medieval |
| massive, bronze-cast statue - the largest statue | | | | publication Lives of Artists, Giorgio Vasari tells |
| ever built, standing 24 feet high. | | | | how Leonardo would go to the markets and buy |
| Leonardo made a great number of preparatory | | | | caged birds, and then open their cages, giving |
| drawings for his Sforza Horse. His notebooks are | | | | them back their freedom.(1) Leonardo studied the |
| filled with proportional studies of horses. There are | | | | motion of their wings in flight as well as their |
| detailed diagrams of the anatomy of horses, along | | | | anatomy and physiology. He wrote down and |
| with notes on how to cast it, and it would weigh | | | | illustrated his own theories on the flight of birds |
| 80 tons once complete! Leonardo made the clay | | | | and was inspired to make several sketches of |
| model to scale, but the bronze horse was not to | | | | mechanical flying machines. He wrote a treatise |
| be. In 1499, the French army threatened an | | | | called Codex on The Flight of Birds in which he |
| attack. The metal intended for the Sforza Horse | | | | made diagrams of a helical wing, beating wings, a |
| would be needed to make canons. Leonardo left | | | | parachute, and bat wings. Later he realized the |
| Milan before the French Army marched on the | | | | problems with human-powered propulsion and |
| city. Seeing the massive clay horse, the French | | | | began making notes and diagrams of gliders. He |
| soldiers could not resist using it for target | | | | also designed a machine based on a helical screw |
| practice.Thereafter it was reduced to rubble. | | | | that was 32 or 33 feet in diameter.(2) It was |
| Leonardo became despondent and at the same | | | | supposed to lift off and fly as the blade rotated, |
| time, vowed to one day see his horse completely | | | | resembling a modern-day helicopter. |
| built. | | | | Leonardo's passionate interest in studying animals |
| Much has been written throughout history about | | | | was unique for his time. He studied and observed |
| the "Horse that Never Was". Five hundred years | | | | animals, and sketched and painted them with |
| after the destruction of the clay model, based on | | | | grace and realism. Other Renaissance artists like |
| the notes and sketches of Leonardo, the 24-foot | | | | Michelangelo (1475-1564) and Raphael (1483-1520), |
| bronze horse was cast. In fact, two full-scale | | | | who focused more on the humanity and divinity in |
| statues were completed. One stands in Michigan, | | | | art, did not include animals in their works to the |
| while the other was given as a gift to the City of | | | | extent as Leonardo did.(3) Without neglecting the |
| Milan. United Airline Pilot Charles Dent made it | | | | Divine in Humanity, Leonardo above all other |
| happen. Upon seeing the original sketches that had | | | | Renaissance artists, elevated all of nature and |
| been rediscovered in Spain, he started the | | | | made it part of the Divine. |