Posted on 10/24/2019 1:23:34 PM PDT by Swordmaker
Item Overview
Description: A unique, 21st Century bronze figure cast from a 16th Century beeswax model authenticated as the work of Leonardo da Vinci.
28 cm x 23.5 cm x 13.35 cm
On October 30th, a unique bronze sculpture by Leonardo da Vinci, will be auctioned at New York's prestigious Pierre Hotel. It is titled simply ''Horse and Rider" (Cavallo e Cavaliere).
The work is cast from a beeswax model hand-carved by Leonardo himself, circa 1508 according to Dr. Carlo Pedretti. Author of over sixty books on the life and work of Leonardo and the Armand Hammer Chair of Leonardo Studies at UCLA, Dr. Pedretti authenticated the statuette in 1985 and documented it in Leonardo Da Vinci In The Collection Of Her Majesty The Queen At Windsor Castle - Volume II - Horses And Other Animals, a three-volume tome prepared with art historian Sir Kenneth Clarke, and published in 1987. He believed Horse and Rider was a model for what was to have been a monumental statue of Leonardo's patron, the French Governor of Milan.
Over the centuries, Leonardo's beeswax model had suffered damage--including the loss of the rider's hands and the left foreleg of the horse. Recognizing the fragile nature of the figure, a mold was created to preserve its integrity, and a single bronze was cast directly from the mold--ensuring Leonardo's Horse and Rider would be memorialized in perpetuity. Most recently, Horse and Rider was exhibited at the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition at the Palazzo delle Stelline in Milan, Italy.
Leonardo da Vinci's Horse and Rider sculpture in bronze, along with the original mold, will be displayed at the Pierre Hotel in New York City for previewing. Prior to the auction additional viewings can be made by appointment. Please contact Guernsey's at 212-794-2280 for more information.
Additional materials:
For a 24-page book written by Leonardo scholar, Ernesto Solari, please click here.
A video outlining the history of the statuette, from its inception to today, can be viewed here.
Don’t forget to add a modest 10% tithe of your auction winning bid to Freerepublic to support it’s efforts. . . Since you found out about this auction here. . . That should keep FR running for years to come.
Don’t know about the rest of you but no way I’m buying a statue of a 3 legged horse. Suckers.
“Don’t know about the rest of you but no way I’m buying a statue of a 3 legged horse. Suckers.”
Just put it next to your Venus de Milo.
Original Da Vinci, unencumbered, will easily go over $100 million. Even this poor example.
He certainly captured a sense of grace and beauty in this.
President Trump could buy it, donate it to the Smithsonian Museum, and the MSM would claim ”Trump buys defective nag by dead white guy, foists junk on public for tax deduction!"
No harm will be done to the original.
Love the jokes written, but I think he is THE most creative person of all time. I can’t fathom how his mind worked.
Paging Hudson Hawk, what are you doing tonight?
Bill Gates will buy it. he’s a Leonardo aficionado...............
Tsk tsk, mocking a special needs horse with his therapy human. How low can you go? ;)
I wonder how much the insurance premium is?
If you have to ask, you can’t afford it. It’s cheaper to hire armed security.
“one-of-a-kind”
Well, it’s one of a kind until the guy who owns the mold decides to make another copy, then you are out of luck.
And the rider has no hands
nationalgeographic.com
Back in 1994, Bill Gates paid $US 30.8 million dollars for the Leonardo Da Vinci manuscript “Codex Leicester”.
The Microsoft cofounder has put the notebook on display at selected museums, allowing visitors a rare glimpse inside Da Vinci’s mind.
The 72 page notebook, containing ideas, drawings and diagrams, was written between 1506 and 1510.
The majority of the Codex Leicester contains Da Vinci’s thoughts on the relationship between the Earth, sun and moon.
(website has images of the Codex)
Must be before he studied the human form. No hands or feet and now way would a rider or horse be in those positions unless a millisecond before a disastrous tumble.
Opening bid $11,000,000.
I tried to submit a bid ($20,000,000), but it makes you register first.
And no feet.
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