{"id":10061,"date":"2026-10-20T03:18:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T03:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/finearttouch.com\/blog\/?p=10061"},"modified":"2026-10-20T03:18:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T03:18:27","slug":"leonardo-s-bronze-horse-sculpture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/finearttouch.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/20\/leonardo-s-bronze-horse-sculpture\/","title":{"rendered":"Leonardo&#8217;s Bronze Horse Sculpture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Verrocchio's Colleoni Monument\" alt=\"Verrocchio's Colleoni Monument\" src=\"https:\/\/finearttouch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/verrocchio-s-colleoni-monument-5730c5e5a083.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Colleoni Monument (Equestrian Statue) Andrea del Verrocchio, 1480s, Gilded bronze, height: 395 cm (without base), Campo di Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While Leonardo da Vinci surpassed his master <a href=\"https:\/\/finearttouch.com\/blog\/?p=10142\">Verrocchio<\/a> in fine art painting as a young man, Verrocchio\u2019s true genius was as a sculptor. In 1479 Verrocchio began work on his famous equestrian sculpture of Venetian <a href=\"https:\/\/finearttouch.com\/blog\/?page_id=13#condottiere\">condottiere<\/a>, Bartolommeo Colleoni, known as the <em>Colleoni Monument<\/em>. Bronze horse sculpture has a long tradition in art, particularly in Italy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Equestrian Sculpture of Marcus Aurelius, 2nd century AD\" alt=\"Equestrian Sculpture of Marcus Aurelius, 2nd century AD\" src=\"https:\/\/finearttouch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/marcus-aurelius-equestrian-c881c8749706.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Equestrian Sculpture of Marcus Aurelius Roman Emperor, 2nd c. AD Gilded bronze, Capitoline Hill, Rome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Italian artists like Verrocchio and Leonardo would surely have seen the monumental bronze horse sculpture of the Roman Emperor, <em>Marcus Aurelius,<\/em> in the heart of Rome, the centerpiece of St. Peter\u2019s piazza. This equestrian sculpture and the equestrian sculpture of Colleoni surely later inspired Leonardo to propose the construction of a 24-foot high, bronze horse sculpture for Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan in 1483. In preparation for casting Leonardo&#8217;s <em>Great Bronze Horse <\/em>sculpture, the artist constructed a full-scale clay model which was destroyed by war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" title=\"Leonardo's Great Bronze Horse Sculpture by Charlie Dent\" alt=\"Leonardo's Great Bronze Horse Sculpture by Charlie Dent\" src=\"https:\/\/finearttouch.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/leonardo-s-bronze-horse-7164eefc377d.jpg\"><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Leonardo&#8217;s Bronze Horse Sculpture Design by Leonardo da Vinci Bronze cast by Charlie Dent<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Five hundred years after Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s death, Leonardo&#8217;s 24-foot <em>Great Bronze Horse <\/em>sculpture has finally been cast thanks to the efforts of da Vinci admirer, Charlie Dent. Dent studied Leonardo da Vinci\u2019s notebook and drawings in this effort. He asserts that this effort was a \u201cgesture of appreciation from the American people for all that the Renaissance has meant to our own culture.\u201d Italian Renaissance art history owes a great debt of thanks to Charlie Dent for finally executing Leonardo&#8217;s famous <em>Great Bronze Horse<\/em> sculpture.<br> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Brenda Harness, Art Historian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While Leonardo da Vinci surpassed his master Verrocchio in fine art painting as a young man, Verrocchio\u2019s true genius was as a sculptor. In 1479 Verrocchio began work on his famous equestrian sculpture of Venetian condottiere, Bartolommeo Colleoni, known as the Colleoni Monument. Bronze horse sculpture has a long tradition in art, particularly in Italy. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-italian-renaissance-art"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/finearttouch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/finearttouch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/finearttouch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finearttouch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finearttouch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10061"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/finearttouch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10279,"href":"https:\/\/finearttouch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10061\/revisions\/10279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/finearttouch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finearttouch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/finearttouch.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}